Another Week of GW NEws, February 17, 2013

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

skip to bottom

Another Week of Climate Disruption News

Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not Wisdom

February 17, 2013

• Chuckles, COP19+, Tesla, Maldives, Warnings, GreenPeace, Gleick
• Bottom Line, Subsidies, Thermodynamics, Cook
• Fukushima Note, Fukushima News
• Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Fisheries, Land Grabs, IP Issues, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather
• GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols, Ozone, Paleoclimate, Attribution
• Climate Sensitivity, Oceans, Extinctions, Bees & CCD, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Cities, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Models, Free Science, Wyrkti
• International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Bank Tax, Hormuz, Misc.
• Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Groundwater
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, Post Sandy, Keystone, Birth Control
• Monnett, T-parti, SOTU, GAO, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, Australia, CSG, Election, MDBP, India, China, Japan, South America
• Canada, Idle No More, Post-SOTU PR, Munchow, Liberals, Northern Gateway, East-West
• Airship, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes, North, Canadiana
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Oil & Gas, Fossil Fuel Corps, Oil & the Economy
• Pipelines, Energy Independence, US Tar Sands, Peak Oil, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, LENR, FITs, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
• Insurance, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Intimidation, Donors Trust, Misc., Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig

 

The things that pass for humour nowadays:

• 2013/02/14: JoeMohrToons: (cartoon - Mohr) Hank D and the Bee: Zero-emissions vehicles
• 2013/02/15: PhdComics: (cartoon - Cham) US Budget Sequestration Explained
• 2013/02/16: RealEconomics: (cartoons - various) Saturday toons
• 2013/02/13: ParliamAnthill: (cartoon - Sadlemyer) ObamAnt's State of the Union Address
• 2013/02/11: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Hoaxing EPA rules
  

  Looking ahead to COP19 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2013/02/15: IndiaTimes: BASIC experts meet to focus on future issues on climate change
  Chennai: Climate experts and negotiators from four emerging economies -- Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- today began discussions here on issues related to climate change. Tomorrow, Environment Ministers from these countries --called BASIC group of nations--will meet here to review the decisions taken at last year's Doha climate conference and plan future steps for taking the global process for an ambitious and equitable agreement under the Durban Platform, official sources said. The meeting of Ministers is preceded by the meeting of their experts and negotiators.
• 2013/02/14: RTCC: Venezuela and Peru compete to host 2014 UN climate talks
  Next year a Latin American and the Caribbean country will host the annual UN climate change negotiations or 'COP20' of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• 
  

  For your weekend entertainment, the Broder vs. Musk pissing match:

   

• 2013/02/15: AutoBG: CNN recreates infamous Tesla Model S drive with miles to spare, others to try this weekend [w/video]
• 2013/02/15: Grist: The Tesla/N.Y. Times fight is a sideshow
• 2013/02/15: KSJT: NYTimes Public Editor wading into Broder v. Musk fight over review of Tesla electric car's long-trip ability
• 2013/02/15: SlashDot: CNN Replicates John Broder's Drive In the Tesla Model S
• 2013/02/15: CNN: Test drive: DC to Boston in a Tesla Model S
• 2013/02/15: BBerg: Tesla Claims of 'Fake' Car Review Rebuffed by N.Y. Times
• 2013/02/14: CJR: All charged up -- Elon Musk says NYT review of a Tesla sedan was dishonest; Broder, Sullivan fire back
• 2013/02/14: TreeHugger: Tesla releases damning logs from New York Times test-drive
• 2013/02/14: AutoBG: NYT writer "cannot account" for discrepancy, still disputes Tesla Model S data
• 2013/02/14: CSM: Tesla vs. New York Times: How well do electric cars stand up to cold?
• 2013/02/14: NYT:Wheels: That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn't [Broder]
• 2013/02/14: AutoBG: Tesla takes New York Times to task for damning Model S review
• 2013/02/13: TeslaMotors: A Most Peculiar Test Drive by Elon Musk
• 2013/02/11: TreeHugger: New York Times Model S review is 'fake', says Tesla CEO
• 2013/02/08: NYT: Stalled Out on Tesla's Electric Highway [Broder]
• 2013/02/11: AutoBG: NYT's Tesla Model S trouble report is "fake," says Elon Musk
• 2013/02/12: BBC: Tesla says New York Times electric car review 'fake'
  

  The saga of Mohamed Nasheed, ex-president of the Maldives drags on:

• 2013/02/15: UN: UN chief concerned about political developments in the Maldives
• 2013/02/13: al Jazeera: Indian embassy shelters ex-Maldives president
  Mohamed Nasheed, who was toppled last year, takes refuge in Indian embassy days after court ordered his arrest. Mohamed Nasheed, the former Maldives president, has taken refuge inside the Indian embassy in the capital, Male, after a local magistrate ordered his arrest. "Mindful of my own security and stability in the Indian Ocean, I have taken refuge at the Indian High Commission in Maldives," Nasheed wrote on Twitter on Wednesday as armed police stood outside the diplomatic compound. Syed Akbaruddin, the Indian foreign ministry spokesman, said India has not decided whether to grant Nasheed refuge at the embassy. The new crisis comes amid more political turbulence in the Indian Ocean island nation a year after Nasheed, a former pro-democracy campaigner, was ousted by violent demonstrations and a mutiny by police and security forces.
• 
  

  What do we have for warnings this week?

   

• 2013/02/14: RTCC: Former IPCC chief warns of 5°C temperature rise
  The world has missed the chance to keep greenhouse gas emissions below the level needed to prevent the temperature climbing above 2°C, according to the British scientist who used to chair the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The scientist, Professor Sir Robert Watson, chaired the Panel from 1997 until 2002, when he was ousted after US pressure for his removal.
• 
  

  Some late comment on the GreenPeace Point of No Return report:

   

• 2013/02/16: CPW: Canada's tar sands are the fifth largest climate threat in the world
• 2013/02/16: Rabble:DT: Point of no return: Report
  

  Happy anniversary Peter Gleick!

• 2013/02/15: ERabett: Gallileo and Gleick
• 2013/02/14: AFTIC: Happy anniversary FakeGate!
• 2013/02/14: GLaden: Peter Gleick vs Heartland Institute
• 2013/02/14: SMandia: Peter Gleick vs Heartland Institute - Scorecard One Year Later. And the Winner Is?
• 2013/02/12: P3: The Return of Fakegate
  

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2013/02/15: Eureka: Climate change's costly wild weather consequences
• 2013/02/13: TP:JR: The $188 Billion Price Tag From U.S. Extreme Weather From 2011 To 2012
• 2013/02/12: Guardian(UK): University of Oxford to identify 'stranded' high carbon assets
  HSBC and Aviva-backed research aims to highlight investments whose value is likely to decline in a low-carbon future
• 2013/02/12: CCP: A Greater Economic Challenge Than Austerity and Debt: Very Serious People Wake Up To Climate
• 2013/02/12: OilChange: RBS Wriggles Over Tar Sand Investments
• 2013/02/11: RTCC: Investors worth $87 trillion demand companies reveal carbon data
  A record 722 investors worth $87 trillion have called for businesses to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change plans, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).
• 
  

  Who's getting the subsidies?

   

• 2013/02/08: Guardian(UK): Fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks are still rising
  New OECD data reveals a system of fossil fuel subsidies and taxes that is horribly overcomplicated and illogical
• 2013/02/11: OECDInsight: Fossil fuel subsidies: billions up in smoke?
  

  Delving into the laws of thermodynamics this week:

• 2013/02/17: TSoD: Visualizing Atmospheric Radiation - Part Thirteen - Surface Emissivity
• 2013/02/12: TSoD: Clouds & Water Vapor - Part Seven - Upper Tropospheric Models & Measuremen
  

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2013/02/16: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #7 by John Hartz
• 2013/02/16: SkS: Analysis of Greenland Ice Cores May Provide Glimpse into Climate's Future by John Hartz
• 2013/02/15: SkS: There is no such thing as climate change denial
• 2013/02/14: SkS: No alternative to atmospheric CO2 draw-down by Andrew Glikson
• 2013/02/13: SkS: A Glimpse at Our Possible Future Climate, Best to Worst Case Scenarios by dana1981
• 2013/02/12: SkS: The Japan Meteorological Agency temperature record by Kevin C
• 2013/02/11: SkS: Lukewarmerism, a.k.a. Ignoring Inconvenient Evidence by dana1981
• 2013/02/10: SkS: Announcing the Skeptical Science Glossary by Sphaerica
• 2013/02/10: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly Digest #6 by John Hartz
  

  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:

   

• 2013/02/17: JapanTimes: Fukushima radiation threatens to wreak woodland havoc
• 2013/02/14: EneNews: Report: Now over 44% of Fukushima children have thyroid abnormalities in latest tests
• 2013/02/13: EneNews: [TEPCO:] Large device - found on the fuel rack" in Fukushima Unit 3 pool...
• 2013/02/13: EneNews: Watch: Japanese journalists reveal radiation cover-up after Fukushima (video)
• 2013/02/12: HuffPo: A Lasting Legacy of the Fukushima Rescue Mission: The Navy Life -- Into the Abyss
• 2013/02/11: EneNews: [US] Navy Sailors After Fukushima: They've got leukemia, testicular cancer, growths...
• 2013/02/11: EneNews: Audio: It's the reality that Northern Japan is contaminated and radioactive material is constantly being spread elsewhere - "A really creepy, macabre feeling"
• 2013/02/10: JapanTimes: Nuclear power and press freedom
  

  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

• 2013/02/17: Dosbat: Cryo-Sat 2 and PIOMAS
• 2013/02/16: CCP: Arctic Sea Ice Volume Death Spiral from PIOMAS data by Andy Lee Robinson
• 2013/02/16: CBC: Sea ice loss in Arctic causing ecosystem changes: study
• 2013/02/16: DD: Ice-free Arctic Ocean in 2030?
• 2013/02/14: TP:JR: Arctic Death Spiral Bombshell: CryoSat-2 Confirms Sea Ice Volume Has Collapsed
• 2013/02/14: SciNews: Melting Arctic may make algae flourish -- More sunlight penetrates thinning sea ice, enabling algal growth
• 2013/02/14: DD: European satellite confirms UW analysis: Arctic Ocean has lost more than a third of summer sea-ice volume since a decade ago
• 2013/02/14: RTCC: Arctic winter sea ice down 9% since 2003
• 2013/02/14: CCurrents: Arctic Ice: Shrinking And Thinning
• 2013/02/13: NASA: NASA Scientists Part of Arctic Sea Ice Study
• 2013/02/13: CCP: CryoSat-2 mission reveals major Arctic sea-ice loss
• 2013/02/13: CCP: Video: ESA's CryoSat-2 reveals major loss of Arctic sea ice volume
• 2013/02/13: ASI: CryoSat-2 reveals major Arctic sea-ice loss
• 2013/02/13: TreeHugger: Cryosat mission reveals massive Arctic ice loss
• 2013/02/13: UW: European satellite confirms UW numbers: Arctic Ocean is on thin ice
• 2013/02/13: BBC: Cryosat spots Arctic sea-ice loss in autumn
  The dramatic recent decline in Arctic sea-ice cover is illustrated in new data from Europe's Cryosat mission. The spacecraft, which uses radar to estimate the thickness of marine floes, has observed a deep reduction in the volume of ice during autumn months. For the years 2010-2012, this is down a third compared with data for 2003-2008. For winter months, the fall in volume is not so great - down 9% over the same period. A lot of thicker ice appears to have been lost from a region to the north of Greenland, the Canadian archipelago, and to a lesser extent the northeast of Svalbard.
• 2013/02/12: CSM: On thin ice: As Arctic Ocean warms, a scramble to understand its weather
• 2013/02/12: Dosbat: Open Water Formation Efficiency Part 2
  

  As for the charismatic megafauna:

• 2013/02/09: IcySeas: Did I ever see a Polar Bear?
• 2013/02/14: CBC: New report suggests feeding threatened polar bears -- Lists ways to save species should climate change threaten its survival
  A group of 12 polar bear experts have come up with some new ideas on how to save the animal should climate change threaten its survival. The policy document, which is not a study, has various suggestions on how to manage the bears if they begin to starve. The ideas range from doing nothing and letting nature take its course, to rescue and rehabilitation. The paper also suggests feeding the bears.
• 2013/02/10: CBC: Canada's management of polar bears at risk
  Canada is in danger of losing a major international battle over its management of polar bears with former allies reversing their position and supporting a proposed ban on cross-border trade in parts of the animals. At stake is a growing and lucrative business for Inuit hunters, who sell the skins as a byproduct of their traditional hunt. A defeat would also be a "warning" to Canada's self-image as a responsible steward of the mighty Arctic predator. Early next month, countries from around the world will meet in Bangkok to consider changes to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
• 
  

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

   

• 2013/02/15: CCP: Thawing Permafrost May Be "Huge Factor" in Global Warming
• 2013/02/12: DD: Sunlight stimulates release of carbon dioxide in melting permafrost - 'Permafrost carbon is potentially a huge factor that will help determine how fast the Earth warms'
• 2013/02/12: TMoS: Only If You Really, Really Want to Know
• 2013/02/12: TP:JR: Melting 'Permafrost' Releases Climate-Warming CO2 Even Faster Than We Thought
• 2013/02/12: RTCC: Thawing Arctic set to release tonnes of stored carbon
• 2013/02/11: SciNow: Slumping Arctic Soils Produce Significant Amounts of CO2
  

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2013/02/15: CSM: What's China doing in Greenland?
• 2013/02/13: al Jazeera: Russia signs exploration deal with Exxon
  Wednesday's agreement confirms ExxonMobil's status as Russia's most important energy partner by far. Exxon Mobil Corp and Russian partner Rosneft have signed an agreement that will give the US company exploration access to an additional 606,000 sq kilometres in the Russian Arctic.
• 2013/02/13: EmbassyMag: Arctic Council observer hopefuls make their pitches -- Indigenous groups concerned about admitting new observers
• 2013/02/12: TP:JR: Shell Sending Arctic Vessels To Asia For Repairs, Casting Doubt Over 2013 Drilling
• 2013/02/12: CCP: Shell will repair rigs [Kulluk & Noble Discoverer] in Asia, possibly delaying Arctic work
• 2013/02/11: NYT: Shell Vessels Sidelined, Imperiling Arctic Plans
  In another blow to its Alaskan Arctic drilling program, Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday that it had decided to tow its two drill vessels there to Asian ports for major repairs, jeopardizing its plans to begin drilling for oil in the icy northern seas next summer.
• 
  

  While in Antarctica:

   

• 2013/02/12: NatureN: Lake-drilling team discovers life under the ice -- Host of microbes found in lake deep under Antarctica's ice sheet
  

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2013/02/16: AllAfrica:IRIN: Thousands of Cattle Die After a Dry Spell in Zimbabwe
• 2013/02/15: UN: UN assessment warns of potential food crisis in Central African Republic
• 2013/02/13: AgWeb: Midwest Soil Could Take 2 Years to Recover from Drought
• 2013/02/16: CSM: Fewer bees in US threaten [California] almond crop
• 2013/02/11: UCSUSA:B: Is the Drought a Perfect Storm for U.S. Beef?
• 2013/02/12: WSWS: US food assistance benefits face cut in November
  The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, will be cut for millions of US families when a temporary increase expires in November 2013. The impending cuts will impact approximately 46 million people, some 13 percent of all US households, with 22 million of those receiving SNAP benefits being children.
• 2013/02/12: al Jazeera: The politics of food in the United States
  The US is the fattest nation in the industrialised world so why are its politicians not doing more to tackle the issue?
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/02/16: DD: As New England fisheries struggle, debate heats up over how to help - 'I really just don't see a way at the moment'
• 2013/02/11: BBC: Iceland dismisses prospect of mackerel wrangle sanctions
  The fishing industry in Iceland is shrugging off the prospect of European trade sanctions if it continues to over-fish one of Scotland's most valuable stocks. The EU has agreed a package of measures against the country - and its neighbour, the Faroe Islands - for use if they do not stop fishing significant quantities of mackerel. But, in Iceland, there is a feeling the sanctions would have almost no impact.
• 2013/02/11: ABC(Au): Former fishermen tell of declining catches
  Retired fishermen have told Environment Tasmania that today's catches are nothing like the overflowing nets of the past. Ten former fishermen were interviewed for the organisation's new film project, Stories of the Sea.
• 
  

  So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

   

• 2013/02/12: Resilience: The global water grab
  

  Look out! the IP Rentiers are coming!

• 2013/02/16: CSM: US agriculture wary as Monsanto heads to Supreme Court
• 2013/02/15: NYT: Farmer's Supreme Court Challenge Puts Monsanto Patents at Risk
• 2013/02/15: CSM: Who owns seeds? Not you, Monsanto says.
• 2013/02/13: RT: Monsanto takes home $23mln from small farmers, seeks to maintain 'seed oligarchy'
  Seed giant Monsanto has won more than $23 million from hundreds of small farmers accused of replanting the company's genetically engineered seeds. Now, another case is looming -- and it could set a landmark precedent for the future of seed ownership. The lawsuits concern Monsanto's patent rights as the company strives to prevent farmers from replanting crops grown from the company's seeds. It's a concept that a study published on Tuesday -- titled 'Seed Giants vs. US Farmers' -- referred to as creating a "seed oligarchy." In the report, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) said it discovered 142 patent infringement suits against 410 farmers and 56 small businesses in more than 27 states as of December 2012. The amount of money pocketed by Monsanto comes to a whopping $23 million. The study was co-produced by the Save our Seeds (SOS) campaign.
• 2013/02/12: HuffPo: Seed Giants Sue U.S. Farmers Over Genetically Modified Seed Patents In Shocking Numbers: Report
  The Supreme Court will hear arguments Feb. 19 in "Bowman v. Monsanto Co.," a landmark court battle that has pitted farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman against the international agriculture corporation over the issue of seed patents. In anticipation, the Center for Food Safety and the Save Our Seeds campaigning groups released a report Tuesday detailing similar cases, titled "Seed Giants vs. U.S. Farmers." According to the report, Monsanto has alleged seed patent infringement in 144 lawsuits against 410 farmers and 56 small farm businesses in at least 27 U.S. states as of January of 2013. Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta together hold 53 percent of the global commercial seed market, which the report says has led to price increases for seeds -- between 1995 and 2011, the average cost of planting one acre of soybeans rose 325 percent and corn seed prices went up 259 percent.
• 2013/02/09: Guardian(UK): Indiana soybean farmer sees Monsanto lawsuit reach US supreme court
  Who controls the rights to the seeds planted in the ground? A 75-year-old farmer takes the agricultural giant to court to find out
• 
  

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

   

• 2013/02/15: Grist: GMO fail: Monsanto foiled by feds, Supreme Court, and science
• 2013/02/13: MoJo: Do GMO Crops Really Have Higher Yields? A new paper by University of Wisconsin researchers suggests they don't.
• 2013/02/17: al Jazeera: Opposition crops up to GMO foods in Hawaii
  The US state, home to many biotech testing fields, becomes a focal point for antagonism to genetically modified food.
• 2013/02/11: Grist: Seed savers: Vandana Shiva and female farmers stand up to Monsanto
  

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

• 2013/02/16: Tyee: Fixing the Broken Tomato -- Meet the doctor who's on a mission to bring back all that magical flavour
• 2013/02/15: Eureka: To feed the world, give women equal rights
• 2013/02/15: ABC(Au): Blueprint maps out future for Australian agriculture
• 2013/02/14: ABC(Au): Cover crops helping the environment and the wallet
• 2013/02/14: UN: Joint UN meeting on food security focuses on 'building a future free of hunger'
• 2013/02/13: UN: Food security and nutrition should top development agenda after 2015 - UN officials
• 2013/02/15: BPA: Thirty-five Water Conservation Methods for Agriculture, Farming, and Gardening. Part 4.
• 2013/02/14: BPA: Thirty-five Water Conservation Methods for Agriculture, Farming, and Gardening. Part 3.
• 2013/02/13: BPA: Thirty-five Water Conservation Methods for Agriculture, Farming, and Gardening. Part 2.
• 2013/02/12: BPA: Thirty-five Water Conservation Methods for Agriculture, Farming, and Gardening. Part 1
  

  Another quiet week. In the central South Indian Ocean, Cyclone Gino is spinning harmlessly toward colder waters:

• 2013/02/16: MODIS: Tropical Cyclone [Gino] Fifteen (15S) in the Indian Ocean [on Feb 11th]
• 2013/02/13: NASA: Tropical Cyclone Gino (Southern Indian Ocean) -- Two NASA Satellites See Cyclone Gino's "Centered" Power
• 2013/02/12: NASA: Tropical Cyclone Gino (Southern Indian Ocean) -- NASA Sees Cyclone Gino Wind Up to Wind Down Later
  

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2013/02/13: Wunderground: NHC upgrades Sandy to a Cat 3 in reanalysis, affirms changes needed for warnings
• 2013/02/: NHC: [links to separate pdfs] 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season - National Hurricane Center's Tropical Cyclone Reports
• 2013/02/12: NASA: Tropical Cyclone Haley (Southern Pacific Ocean) -- Infrared NASA Image Shows Cyclone Haley's Demise
  

  This week in notable weather:

• 2013/02/12: NASA: NASA Provides Satellite Views of Nor'easter Lifespan
• 2013/02/13: IOTD: February [7th] Blizzard Strikes U.S. Northeast
• 2013/02/11: WSWS: Blizzard claims at least 14 lives in US Northeast and Canada
  

  This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

• 2013/02/13: al Jazeera: More severe weather slams the US -- Tornadoes rip through the southern states of Mississippi and Alabama
  

  As for GHGs:

• 2013/02/17: LoE: Climate Change: First Wake-Up Call in 1910?
• 2013/02/14: CCurrents: Wetland Trees, A Significant Source Of Methane
• 2013/02/13: Eureka: Wetland trees a significant overlooked source of methane, study finds
• 2013/02/06: EENews: First-time reports from industry reveal massive methane emissions
• 2013/02/11: TP:JR: The 17% Cut In Carbon Pollution By 2020: Yes We Can Get There From Here
  

  And in the carbon cycle:

• 2013/02/13: Eureka: A war without end -- with Earth's carbon cycle held in the balance
  

  As for the temperature record:

• 2013/02/15: DD: NOAA: February 2012 to January 2013 warmest on record
• 2013/02/14: Moyhu: January TempLS Global Temp up 0.15°C
  

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2013/02/13: MODIS: Dust storm off West Africa
  

  Regarding ozone:

• 2013/02/13: CSM: Ozone hole shrinks to new low
  

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2013/02/15: PostMedia: New study slams theory that meteorite struck ice-age Canada and killed off mammoths
  A controversial theory that a massive meteorite struck Canada about 13,000 years ago - then wreaked havoc on global climate, Ice Age mega-mammals and early human occupants of North America - has taken yet another scientific hit, perhaps dooming the impact hypothesis to the same fate as the woolly mammoths whose extinction it purportedly helped explain.
• 2013/02/12: UMelbourne: Ice age extinction shaped Australian plant diversity
• 2013/02/12: ABC(Au): Fossil leaves uncover mass plant extinction
  Plant mystery A previously unknown mass extinction of plants occurred around a million years ago in the southeast corner of Australia, an analysis of fossilised leaves shows.
• 
  

  In the attribution debate:

   

• 2013/02/14: TP:JR: Video: Boston Meteorologist Links New England Blizzard To Climate Change
• 2013/02/11: CCurrents: Nemo, The Blizzard, Snow, Climate Crisis, The connection
• 2013/02/10: GLaden: Finding Nemo
  

  Regarding Climate Sensitivity:

• 2013/02/16: ERabett: Consensus Palaeoclimate Sensitivity
  

  And the State of the Oceans:

• 2013/02/12: ABC(Au): The multi billion dollar cost of lost seagrass
  Australia is losing massive amounts of seagrass and the effects of those losses could be counted in billions of dollars, say environmental experts.
• 2013/02/11: RTCC: David Miliband: Ocean indicators are all flashing red
  

  What's new on the extinction front?

• 2013/02/15: ABC(Au): Extinction fears for Gladstone seagrass
• 2013/02/15: BBC: World's reptiles at risk of extinction
  Almost a fifth of the world's reptile species are at risk of extinction, according to scientists. Research led by the Zoological Society of London found that the future of 19% of the world's reptiles are threatened.
• 2013/02/14: Eureka: Slithering towards extinction -- Almost 1 in 5 reptiles are struggling to survive
• 2013/02/14: TheConversation: Australian endangered species: Gilbert's Potoroo
• 2013/02/14: Guardian(UK): Chinese appetite for shark fin soup devastating Mozambique coastline
  Mantas and hammerheads to 'disappear' from divers' paradise if plunder is unchecked
• 2013/02/13: BBC: Three charged in rhino horn smuggling ring
  Three people have been arrested in the US and accused of conspiring to smuggle endangered black rhino horns and carvings from the US into China. Zhifei Li, 28, smuggled more than 20 raw rhino horns, while Shusen Wei, 44, is charged with trying to bribe a federal law enforcement officer to aid Mr Li, federal prosecutors said. Qing Wang is accused of sending carved rhino cups to Mr Li in Hong Kong. US federal law bars trafficking in endangered species. Mr Li and Mr Wei are Chinese nationals.
• 2013/02/11: CSM: Palm oil casualty? 14 pygmy elephants fall prey to pesticides in Borneo
• 2013/02/10: TheCanadian: Of Frogs and Fishes: Farms Spawn Lethal Diseases
  

  The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant worry:

• 2013/02/16: CSM: Fewer bees in US threaten [California] almond crop
• 2013/02/11: ProMedMail: Colony collapse disorder, apis - USA (02): (CA) 2012, not
  

  What's new in proxies?

• 2013/02/13: ABC(Au): Researchers hope [Queensland kauri pine] tree will unlock climate history
  

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2013/02/11: NatureNB: NASA launches Landsat 8 into orbit
• 2013/02/11: BBC: Lift-off for latest Landsat mission
  One of the most important space launches of the year has just occurred in California. It saw the Landsat-8 mission hurtle skywards on an Atlas rocket from the US Air Force base at Vandenberg shortly after 10:00 local time (18:00 GMT). The spacecraft will maintain the longest continuous image record of the Earth's surface as viewed from space. It is a record that now stretches back over 40 years - an invaluable tool for studying our changing world.
• 2013/02/12: IOTD: Landsat Data Continuity Mission Takes Off
  

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2013/02/14: TP:JR: Climate Change is Remaking Winter
• 2013/02/12: CCurrents: Climate Change Can Threaten Asian Bird Survival
• 2013/02/12: CCurrents: Climate Crisis Already Upon Us
• 2013/02/12: TreeHugger: Wildflowers threatened by "safe" levels of nitrogen pollution
• 2013/02/09: Reuters: Minnesota moose population plummets, activists blame climate
  The population of moose in northeastern Minnesota dropped by 35 percent since last year, prompting state officials to cancel this year's fall hunt and conservationists to blame warming temperatures for the massive creature's decline.
• 
  

  And then there are the world's forests:

   

• 2013/02/13: CSM: Global warming: Yet another threat to Southwest's iconic pinyon pine?
• 2013/02/12: Eureka: Southwest regional warming likely cause of pinyon pine cone decline, says CU study
• 2013/02/11: Guardian(UK): Gas company targets protected Manú park in Peruvian Amazon
  Leaked document reveals Pluspetrol is eyeing a region where biodiversity 'exceeds that of any other place on Earth'
• 2013/02/12: TreeHugger: Brazil to count every tree in its rainforests in massive census
• 2013/02/11: Eureka: Tree die-off triggered by hotter temperatures
• 2013/02/10: RTCC: Climate impacts on Amazon expected to be complex
  The Amazon rainforest may be facing less of a threat of destruction than many people think, scientists say -- because carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from human activities, can have a beneficial effect.
• 
  

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

   

• 2013/02/12: DD: Vanishing homeland of Kiribati leaves people with nowhere to go - 'Climate change is the greatest moral challenge of the 21st century'
  

  On the tornado front:

• 2013/02/12: Wunderground: First EF-4 tornado of 2013 injures 82 near Hattiesburg, MS
• 2013/02/11: CSM: Mississippi tornado hits Hattiesburg, leaves no fatalities
  

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2013/02/17: ABC(Au): Emergency warning back on for Grampians blaze
  Victoria's Country Fire Authority (CFA) has reissued an emergency warning for a 400-hectare bushfire in the Grampians National Park. The out-of-control fire is travelling in a south-easterly direction and is expected to impact on the Jensens Road area of Mirranatwa.
• 2013/02/16: ABC(Au): Firefighters save Grampians home from blaze
  Victorian firefighters have beaten back a fire which threatened a home near the Grampians National Park in the state's west overnight. The large bushfire is one of about 25 currently burning in the Mount William, Victoria Valley and Mount Abrupt areas.
• 2013/02/14: MODIS: Fires in Queensland, Australia [on Feb 3rd]
• 2013/02/13: ABC(Au): Two firefighters killed battling Victorian blaze
  Police say the two firefighters killed in Victoria's alpine region on Wednesday were a man and a woman. They were working on the huge Harrietville blaze when a tree fell on their vehicle in the remote Buckland valley.
• 2013/02/13: ABC(Au): Two homes lost as fire rages out of control
  Two homes have been destroyed in a blaze in Western Australia's South West. One of the houses burnt to the ground was the historic Southampton Homestead, built in 1862, which was 12 kilometres south of the small town of Balingup. More than 130 firefighters are battling the out of control fire in forest between Bridgetown and Nannup. Up to six separate fires were sparked following an intensive thunderstorm in the region on Tuesday.
• 2013/02/11: ABC(Au): Bushfire advice issued for blaze in Byford
  

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2013/02/17: FaGP: Death of a Glacier, Whitechuck Glacier, Washington
• 2013/02/14: ERW: Estimating thickness of mountain glaciers
• 2013/02/14: FaGP: Tasman Glacier Retreat Update 2013
• 2013/02/11: FaGP: Warwan Basin Glacier Retreat, India
• 2013/02/11: CSM: Epic glacier collapse caught on camera
  Amateur photographer Christian Grosso got a surprise recently when he visited a glacier in Argentina's Patagonia region: an enormous ice bridge connected to the glacier ruptured and fell, causing a huge wave in the lake below. Luckily he had his camera to capture the event. And another visitor caught a video of the ice falling. The glacier, known as Perito Moreno, is one of the largest in Patagonia, a region at the southern tip of South America, according to the NASA Earth Observatory.
• 
  

  Sea levels are rising:

   

• 2013/02/11: UCSUSA:B: Seaside Retreat: Redefining Coastal Communities as the Ocean Rises
• 2013/02/11: Wunderground: Climate change impact on Nor'easters: an increased storm surge threat
  

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2013/02/17: TP:JR: Après Nous, Le Déluge: Extreme Rainfall Rises With Global Temperatures
• 2013/02/16: Wunderground: U.S. gets unusually boring January weather; Thursday storm to ease Midwest drought
• 2013/02/16: SimpleC: Extra stations bolster warming-extreme rainfall link
• 2013/02/14: al Jazeera: Heavy rain swamps parts of Peru and Bolivia
  Flooding and landslides rip through roads and buildings, killing at least six people in Peru.
• 2013/02/14: GLaden: US Drought
  

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

• 2013/02/16: ERabett: 2 C
• 2013/02/15: ERW: Clean-cook stoves prove popular in Honduras
  

  Can cities take up the slack when nations shirk their responsibilities?

• 2013/02/16: Grist: The surprisingly low-tech solution to big cities' climate woes: Triple-pane windows
• 2013/02/12: Eureka: Cities can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent, says U of T researcher
  

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2013/02/17: WpgFP: Report flies idea of airships -- Good for Canada, committee says
  

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

• 2013/02/14: TreeHugger: A vision of the urban building of the future
• 2013/02/13: Slate: The Triple-Pane Windows Theory
  A shockingly simple blueprint for big cities to save the planet without wrecking the economy.
• 
  

  As for carbon sequestration:

   

• 2013/02/13: TheConversation: Carbon capture can't rely on fine-tuning old technologies
• 2013/02/11: Eureka: Carbon sponge could soak up coal emissions
  

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2013/02/17: Eureka: Media advisory: AAAS session addresses infrastructure design in a changing climate
  

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2013/02/12: ERL: Strategic incentives for climate geoengineering coalitions to exclude broad participation by Katharine L Ricke et al.
• 2013/02/12: PNAS: (ab$) Microbiome of the upper troposphere: Species composition and prevalence, effects of tropical storms, and atmospheric implications by Natasha DeLeon-Rodriguez et al.
• 2013/02/12: PNAS: (abs) A double-integration hypothesis to explain ocean ecosystem response to climate forcing by Emanuele Di Lorenzo & Mark D. Ohman
• 2013/02/12: PNAS: (letter) When an ecological regime shift is really just stochastic noise by Scott C. Doney & Sevrine F. Sailley
• 2013/02/12: PNAS: (letter$) Policies to enhance economic feasibility of a sustainable energy transition by Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh
• 2013/02/12: PNAS: (letter) Reply to Rhines and Huybers: Changes in the frequency of extreme summer heat by James Hansen et al.
• 2013/02/12: PNAS: (letter) Frequent summer temperature extremes reflect changes in the mean, not the variance by Andrew Rhines & Peter Huybers
• 2013/02/14: ACPD: Stratospheric lifetimes of CFC-12, CCl4, CH4, CH3Cl and N2O from measurements made by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) by A. T. Brown et al.
• 2013/02/14: ACPD: Quantifying the impact of BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants over the Atlantic using Aircraft and Satellites (BORTAS) experiment: design, execution and science overview by P. I. Palmer et multi alia
• 2013/02/12: ACPD: Halogen species record Antarctic sea ice extent over glacial-interglacial periods by A. Spolaor et al.
• 2013/02/11: ACPD: Modeling the present and future impact of aviation on climate: an AOGCM approach with online coupled chemistry by P. Huszar et al.
• 2013/02/11: ACPD: Influence of surface albedo heterogeneity on passive remote sensing of cirrus properties by C. Fricke et al.
• 2013/02/11: ACPD: Towards better error statistics for atmospheric inversions of methane surface fluxes by A. Berchet et al.
• 2009/04/30: Nature: (ab$) Greenhouse-gas emission targets for limiting global warming to 2°C by Malte Meinshausen et al.
• 2013/02/12: ERL: Child-orientated environmental education influences adult knowledge and household behaviour by P Damerell et al.
• 2013/02/13: ESDD: Comparing projections of future changes in runoff and water resources from hydrological and ecosystem models in ISI-MIP by J. C. S. Davie et al.
• 2013/02/14: CP: Large-scale temperature response to external forcing in simulations and reconstructions of the last millennium by L. Fernández-Donado et al.
• 2013/02/14: CP: Reconstruction of drip-water O18 based on calcite oxygen and clumped isotopes of speleothems from Bunker Cave (Germany) by T. Kluge et al.
• 2013/02/13: CP: A new global reconstruction of temperature changes at the Last Glacial Maximum by J. D. Annan & J. C. Hargreaves
• 2013/02/12: CP: Greenland ice sheet contribution to sea level rise during the last interglacial period: a modelling study driven and constrained by ice core data by A. Quiquet et al.
• 2013/02/15: CPD: The Irish famine of 1740-1741: causes and effects by S. Engler et al.
• 2013/02/14: CPD: Volcanic forcing for climate modeling: a new microphysics-based dataset covering years 1600-present by F. Arfeuille et al.
• 2013/02/13: CPD: Peak glacial C14 ventilation ages suggest major draw-down of carbon into the abyssal ocean by M. Sarnthein et al.
• 2013/02/12: CPD: Large spatial variations in coastal C14 reservoir age - a case study from the Baltic Sea by B. C. Lougheed et al.
• 2013/02/12: CPD: Global and regional sea surface temperature trends during Marine Isotope Stage 11 by Y. Milker et al.
• 2013/02/11: CPD: Using paleo-climate comparisons to constrain future projections in CMIP5 by G. A. Schmidt et al.
• 2013/02/14: Science: (ab$) Export of Algal Biomass from the Melting Arctic Sea Ice by Antje Boetius et al.
• 2012/12/24: ACS:ES&T: Downgrading Recent Estimates of Land Available for Biofuel Production by Steffen Fritz et al.
• 2013/02/11: NERC:NORA: A global analysis of zooplankton in natural and artificial fresh waters by Faye L. Merrix-Jones et al.
• 2013/02/15: ACP: A joint effort to deliver satellite retrieved atmospheric CO2 concentrations for surface flux inversions: the ensemble median algorithm EMMA by M. Reuter et al.
• 2013/02/15: ACP: Long-term observations of aerosol size distributions in semi-clean and polluted savannah in South Africa by V. Vakkari et al.
• 2013/02/15: ACP: A comprehensive emission inventory of biogenic volatile organic compounds in Europe: improved seasonality and land-cover by D. C. Oderbolz et al.
• 2013/02/15: ACPD: Long-range transport of biomass burning smoke to Finland in 2006 by L. Riuttanen et al.
• 2013/02/14: OS: X-band COSMO-SkyMed wind field retrieval, with application to coastal circulation modeling by A. Montuori et al.
• 2013/02/14: OS: The coherence of small island sea level with the wider ocean: a model study by Joanne Williams & Chris W. Hughes
• 2013/02/13: OSD: Investigation of saline water intrusions into the Curonian Lagoon (Lithuania) and two-layer flow in the Klaipe.da Strait using finite element hydrodynamic model by P. Zemlys et al.
• 2013/02/15: TC: Analysis of ice phenology of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau from MODIS data by J. Kropácek et al.
• 2012/11/28: Nature: (ab$) Making sense of palaeoclimate sensitivity by PalaeoSens Project Members
• 2013/01/30: WOL:JGR:A: Quantifying the effect of urbanization on U.S. Historical Climatology Network temperature records by Zeke Hausfather et al.
• 2013/02/12: Springer:ES&D: (ab$) Climate engineering and climate tipping-point scenarios by J. Eric Bickel
• 2013/02/11: GMDD: An optimally tuned ensemble of the "eb_go_gs" configuration of GENIE: parameter sensitivity and bifurcations in the Atlantic overturning circulation by R. Marsh et al.
• 2013/02/12: TC: A recent tipping point in the Arctic sea-ice cover: abrupt and persistent increase in the seasonal cycle since 2007 by V. N. Livina & T. M. Lenton
• 2013/02/11: TC: Borehole temperatures reveal a changed energy budget at Mill Island, East Antarctica, over recent decades by J. L. Roberts et al.
• 2013/02/12: TCD: An inventory of glacier changes between 1973 and 2011 for the Geladandong Mountain area, China by J. Zhang et al.
• 2013/02/10: Nature:CC: (ab$) Atmospheric verification of anthropogenic CO2 emission trends by Roger J. Francey et al.
• 2013/02/10: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Estimated strength of the Atlantic overturning circulation during the last deglaciation by Stefan P. Ritz et al.
• 2013/02/10: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) The contribution of glacial erosion to shaping the hidden landscape of East Antarctica by Stuart N. Thomson et al.
• 2013/02/10: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Links between tropical rainfall and North Atlantic climate during the last glacial period by Gaudenz Deplazes et al.
• 2013/01/15: arXiv: Highly-Efficient Thermoelectronic Conversion of Solar Energy and Heat into Electric Power by S. Meir et al.
• 2013/02/07: BMJ:TC: (ab$) 'To quarterback behind the scenes, third-party efforts': the tobacco industry and the Tea Party by Amanda Fallin et al.
  

  And other significant documents:

• 2013/02/: C2ES: [link to pdf] Federal Action on Climate Change and Clean Energy
• 2013/02/: NHC: [links to separate pdfs] 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season - National Hurricane Center's Tropical Cyclone Reports
  

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2013/02/14: ICN: The Most Influential Climate Science Paper Today Remains Unknown to Most People [Meinshausen et al.]
• 2013/02/14: TreeHugger: Climate change and the burden of proof
• 2013/02/13: Tamino: UHI in the USA
• 2013/02/13: RealClimate: Urban Heat Islands and U.S. Temperature Trends
• 2013/02/16: Eureka: Flow of research on ice sheets helps answer climate questions
• 2013/02/15: IsaacHeld: 35. Atlantic multi-decadal variability and aerosols
• 2013/02/13: TMasters: Our paper on UHI in USHCN is now published
• 2013/02/17: JEB: The inevitable failure of attribution
• 2013/02/11: RW: "Why aren't there more retractions in business and economics journals?"
• 2013/02/12: Tamino: 2012 Updates to Trend-Observation Comparisons
• 2013/02/11: CCP: Warm climate -- cold Arctic? The Eemian is a poor analogue for current climate change
  

  What's new in models?

• 2013/02/13: TreeHugger: Climate change models explained in 90 seconds
  

  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Free/Open Science?

• 2013/02/15: NatureNB: Fourth-time lucky for US open access bill?
  

  Wyrkti obit:

• 2013/02/13: KlimaZwiebel: Klaus Wyrkti has passed away
  

  Meanwhile at the UN:

• 2013/02/14: Eureka: Climate scientist Schellnhuber to brief UN Security Council
• 2013/02/14: FAO: FAO Director-General urges time frame for hunger, poverty eradication -- "Bolder goal" needed for post-2015 period
• 2013/02/13: FAO: Food and nutrition security should be the top development goal -- Rome meeting consults on post-2015 development agenda
• 2013/02/11: FAO: FAO, IFAD sign agreement to promote smallholder financing -- Grant will help generate new policy tools and training materials
• 2013/02/11: UN: UN humanitarian fund gives over $5 million to assist flood-stricken Mozambique
• 2013/02/12: NatureNB: New commission takes on high-seas issues
  A 'Global Ocean Commission' of leading politicians has formed to try and find practical solutions to the problems presented by the increasing importance and utilization of the high seas.
• 2013/02/12: ScienceInsider: New Global Ocean Commission Aims to Influence U.N. Policy
  

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2013/02/15: Guardian(UK): EU urged to revive flagging emissions trading scheme
  More than 30 large companies sign up to call for reforms ahead of key vote in European parliament next week
• 2013/02/15: EurActiv: Nations seen going separate ways on carbon as EU efforts falter
• 2013/02/14: RTCC: German inaction could sink European carbon market
  Germany could block plans to save the EU carbon market if it abstains from a crucial vote on reforms expected to take place shortly.
• 2013/02/08: C&C: Carbon trading has failed: scrap the ETS now
• 2013/02/12: BBerg: EU Carbon Price Increases to Six-Day High Ahead of Glut-Fix Vote
  European Union carbon permits advanced to their highest since Feb. 6 as the environment committee of the bloc's parliament prepares to vote on a measure to temporarily cut supply of the certificates. EU allowances for December rose as much as 4.9 percent to 4.70 euros ($6.32) a metric ton...
• 2013/02/11: ICN: Northeast's Tougher Carbon Cap Seen Doubling Critical Revenues by 2020
  A major change to RGGI is expected to increase the price of carbon and send billions more into state coffers, much of that to clean energy.
• 
  

  The Robin Hood tax, aka the Tobin tax, aka the Bank tax, aka the Financial Transaction tax keeps coming up:

   

• 2013/02/15: RT: Tax the world: EU's controversial 'Tobin' tax might take effect in 2014
• 2013/02/15: EurActiv: Britain wary as EU Commission launches financial transaction tax
  The European Commission formally proposed a tax on financial trading in 11 countries yesterday (14 February), saying the levy could raise up to €35 billion each year and make banks more accountable following the 2008 banking crisis.
• 2013/02/14: BBC: The European Commission has tabled its controversial financial transaction tax (FTT), despite the fact that only 11 member states out of 27 support it
  

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

• 2013/02/11: DemNow: Despite Offer of Direct Talks, U.S. Intensifies "Sanctions-Centric" Economic War Against Iran
  

  And in miscellaneous international political jousting:

• 2013/02/13: DD: China's thick smog arrives in Japan...
• 2013/02/13: ABC(Au): [Australian Foreign Minister, Bob] Carr calls on [UN Security] Council to combat climate change
• 2013/02/11: ABC(Au): Carr sees Kiribati's climate threat
  The Australian Foreign Minister, Senator Bob Carr, says the Pacific island nation of Kiribati is living the reality of the dangers of climate change
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/02/15: BBerg: Climate Change's Links to Conflict Draws UN Attention
• 2013/02/15: FAO: Mali: Impending planting season at risk, support to agriculture critical
  FAO Director-General and Mali's Minister for Agriculture stress need to restart local food production, build communities' resilience
• 2013/02/14: RT: Russia may be drawn into resource wars in future - army chief
  Russia may become drawn into military conflicts as world powers begin to vie for energy resources in the next two decades, said Valery Gerasimov, the head of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. By 2030, the level of "existing and potential threats will significantly increase," Gerasimov said during a security conference in Moscow, according to Interfax.
• 2013/02/13: DD: South Americans face deadly water battles - 'The only thing the people want is water for families, but the mining companies want to take it. And soldiers will kill if you get in the way.'
  

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

• 2013/02/13: CSW: 48 arrested in civil disobedience at White House to stop Keystone XL pipeline and push Obama on climate action
  

  What are the activists up to?

• 2013/02/13: CCP: 'I'd rather fight like hell': Naomi Klein's fierce new resolve to fight for climate justice
• 2013/02/11: RawStory: Environmentalists plan massive rally to spur action on climate change
  

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2013/02/13: Guardian(UK): Two-thirds of Americans want Obama to act on climate change, says poll
  

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2013/02/17: Eureka: Thirsty crops and hungry people: Symposium to examine realities of water security
• 2013/02/16: JFleck: On the unpopularity of peripheral thingies in northern California
• 2013/02/11: UNWater: 2013 - International Year of Water Cooperation Launch ceremony
• 2013/02/12: Resilience: The global water grab
  

  And on the groundwater front:

• 2013/02/13: CCurrents: Middle East Loses Freshwater Reserves Rapidly
• 2013/02/12: NASA: NASA Satellites Find Freshwater Losses in Middle East
• 2013/02/12: NASA:JPL: NASA Satellites Find Freshwater Losses in Middle East
• 2013/01/25: ProPublica: Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need to Drink
  Mexico City plans to draw drinking water from a mile-deep aquifer, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The Mexican effort challenges a key tenet of U.S. clean water policy: that water far underground can be intentionally polluted because it will never be used.
• 2013/02/12: CCP: Mexico City's Mile-Deep Aquifer Tapping Suggests U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need
• 2013/02/12: UCI: Middle East river basin has lost Dead Sea-sized quantity of water
  UCI researchers cite pumping from underground reservoirs
  Already strained by water scarcity and political tensions, the arid Middle East along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is losing critical water reserves at a rapid pace, from Turkey upstream to Syria, Iran and Iraq below.
• 
  

  And on the American political front:

   

• 2013/02/15: RTCC: Economics should dictate climate policy - Bush advisor
• 2013/02/15: TreeHugger: Bill AB266 could extend HOV lane access for green cars by 10 years in California
• 2013/02/15: UCSUSA: Michigan Governor Hearings on Energy Future Must Lead to Policy in 2014
• 2013/02/15: TP:JR: Conservatives Aim To Roll Back Kansas Renewable Energy Standard
• 2013/02/15: KSJT: Yale 360: A Republican [Inglis], bounced for accepting global warming, explains why conservatives have the answer
• 2013/02/13: DeSmogBlog: NY Fracking Decision Delayed by Cuomo Administration, Too Early to Pop Champagne Bottles
• 2013/02/13: P3: Why the Market Fails the Environment
• 2013/02/12: C2ES: C2ES Policy Guide Outlines Options for Climate and Energy Action
• 2013/02/: C2ES: [link to pdf] Federal Action on Climate Change and Clean Energy
• 2013/02/14: Guardian(UK): Bob Inglis: the Republican who believes in climate change
• 2013/02/12: Grist: Tea Party dim bulbs go after renewable energy standard in Kansas
• 2013/02/11: DeSmogBlog: NY Fracking Scandal: Seven Groups Demand Conflict of Interest Investigation of Cuomo Administration
• 2013/02/10: Salon: Al Gore: Fix the filibuster, talk about climate change, ensure privacy online
  

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2013/02/16: EneNews: Reuters AlertNet: Gas well has leak beneath floor of U.S. Gulf -- Been flowing underground for over 12 days
• 2013/02/15: EneNews: Radio: Uncontrolled gas flowing from well in Gulf of Mexico -- WSJ: Experts trying to stop flow below seafloor
  

  Post-Sandy commentary and news:

• 2013/02/16: al Jazeera: Lessons from Hurricane Sandy
  The US National Weather Service report on the 'superstorm' which devastated parts of the Caribbean and US. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has released its assessment on Hurricane Sandy which produced a swathe of destruction from the Caribbean to the northeast of the US in late October.
• 2013/02/13: NatureN: Natural hazards: New York vs the sea
  In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, scientists and officials are trying to protect the largest US city from future floods.
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/02/16: CPW: Grammy-award winning rapper Eve to perform at Forward On Climate rally
• 2013/02/17: CPW: The Keystone XL Tar Sands Climate Threat (video)
• 2013/02/16: Stoat: Thinking beyond pipelines?
• 2013/02/16: DD: Four U.S. states introduce Keystone XL pipeline resolutions, lifting language directly from ALEC and TransCanada
• 2013/02/16: al Jazeera: Keystone XL: Game over or game on?
  We look at the environmental and political impact if President Obama greenlights the construction of the pipeline.
• 2013/02/15: CPW: Sierra Club Greets President Obama In Atlanta With Climate Message
• 2013/02/15: P3: Thinking beyond pipelines
• 2013/02/14: GPalast: "I want my fair share ... and that's ALL OF IT." The Kochs & the XL Pipeline
• 2013/02/14: DemNow: 48 Arrested at Keystone Pipeline Protest as Sierra Club Lifts 120-Year Ban on Civil Disobedience
• 2013/02/14: DemNow: "We Need To Push Him": Actress Daryl Hannah Arrested While Urging Obama to Reject Keystone Pipeline
• 2013/02/14: CCurrents: The Emperor's New Pipeline
• 2013/02/14: CSM: Keystone XL pipeline protest marks first civil disobedience by Sierra Club
• 2013/02/14: TreeHugger: Sierra Club leads civil disobedience at White House, 48 arrested
• 2013/02/14: Grist: Watch Sierra Club rabble-rousers get arrested in front of the White House
• 2013/02/13: Guardian(UK): Daryl Hannah leads celebrity Keystone XL protest at White House gates
  Fifty people detained by police after handcuffing themselves to gates to demand that Obama shuts down pipeline project
• 2013/02/13: CSW: 48 arrested in civil disobedience at White House to stop Keystone XL pipeline and push Obama on climate action
• 2013/02/13: TheHill:e2W: Green groups to risk arrest in White House protest against Keystone XL
• 2013/02/13: CCP: Activists arrested at White House protesting Keystone pipeline
  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrested at Keystone XL protest in front of White House: Obama genuflects to the oil industry and Congress are their indentured servants
• 2013/02/13: CPW: Keystone XL pipeline: Leaders in historical act of civil disobedience in front of White House
• 2013/02/13: CBC: Keystone XL protesters arrested outside White House
• 2013/02/11: DailyKos: Keystone XL pipeline is not in the U.S. National Interest
• 2013/02/11: RawStory: Environmentalists plan massive rally to spur action on climate change
• 2013/02/12: ICN: Okla. Sheriff Arrests 8 at Keystone XL Pipeline Site
• 2013/02/11: Grist: Obama's Keystone XL decision could doom the tar sands ... or the planet
• 2013/02/12: CSW: On acting to block the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline
• 2013/02/11: TP:JR: Gleick's Significant Figures: Is The Keystone XL Pipeline A Symbol Or A Piece Of A Puzzle?
• 2013/02/11: OilChange: EU Sees KXL is an Export Pipeline
• 2013/02/10: NakedCapitalism: Koch Brothers Driving Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada to Cut Out Venezuelan Oil
  

  The GOP War on Women continues. See also:

• 2013/02/14: BBC: Morning-after pill use rises in US
• 2013/02/12: RawStory: Rubio one of 22 male GOP senators to vote against Violence Against Women Act
  

  Unbelievably, the Monnett saga staggers on:

• 2013/02/14: CCP: BOEM's IG slapped down again in Monnett polar-bear witch-hunt zombie case
  

  Remember those screamers? They were PR tools, whether they knew it or not:

• 2013/02/07: BMJ:TC: (ab$) 'To quarterback behind the scenes, third-party efforts': the tobacco industry and the Tea Party by Amanda Fallin et al.
• 2013/02/14: DD: Study confirms Tea Party was created by Big Tobacco and billionaire Koch brothers, 'to advocate on behalf of the tobacco industry's anti-tax, anti-regulation agenda'
• 2013/02/11: TP:JR: Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Pollutocrat Kochs
• 2013/02/12: DeSmogBlog: TEA Party: Tobacco Everywhere Always
• 2013/02/11: DeSmogBlog: Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaires
  

  The SOTUwent down Tuesday evening:

• 2013/02/15: TP:JR: Small Business Groups Praise Obama's Climate Stance, Call For Regulation Of Existing Power Plants
• 2013/02/14: TheConversation: State of the Union: climate change action is a domestic concern
• 2013/02/14: WtD: Obama "trust the science" while talk of an Amercian carbon tax begins: the ground is shifting
• 2013/02/13: CSM: State of the Union address: What is Obama's 'energy security trust'?
• 2013/02/13: ScienceInsider: Decoding the Science in Obama's State of the Union Speech
• 2013/02/13: CBC: Obama's climate challenge aimed at Canada, U.S. envoy says
  President Barack Obama's State of the Union message to act swiftly on climate change should be interpreted as a challenge to Ottawa as well, says the U.S. ambassador to Canada. Obama used Tuesday's speech to present Congress with a choice: either agree to market-based solutions to climate change, or else the president will use his executive powers to achieve the same result. U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson said, in an interview with The Canadian Press, the message to move more aggressively against climate change was meant as much for Canada as it was for the United States.
• 2013/02/13: PSinclair: Strangely Anti Climactic? Key passage from SOTU
• 2013/02/13: DD: President Obama cites storms, drought to build case for climate action...
• 2013/02/13: TP:JR: Obama's 'We Can't Wait' Moment On Climate Disaster
• 2013/02/13: Guardian(UK): Obama gives Congress climate ultimatum: back me, or I go it alone
  President vows to push for new technologies and carbon taxes 'to protect future generations'
• 2013/02/13: ICN: Obama Thin on Climate Promises, Tempering Hopes and Some Expectations
• 2013/02/13: Grist: Obama: If Congress won't act on climate change, I will
• 2013/02/13: Grist: From Obama's speech, four ambitious climate and energy proposals
• 2013/02/12: Grist: Obama can't change polarization on climate change
• 2013/02/12: SciAm:Obs: Obama Takes Aim at Climate Change, Cyber Security
• 2013/02/13: ERabett:BSD: Obama picks up the "it's not a coincidence" theme
• 2013/02/12: UCSUSA: President Says Nation Should Heed Science, Act on Climate Change
• 2013/02/13: TreeHugger: President Obama's next steps for a Carbon Tax
• 2013/02/13: GreenGrok: In State of the Union Speech Obama Straddles the Climate-Energy Fence
• 2013/02/13: FDL: Obama's SOTU Remarks On Climate Change Confuse
• 2013/02/12: TreeHugger: President Obama addresses climate, energy, infrastructure in State of the Union
• 2013/02/12: CSM: State of the Union address: Will Obama back coal?
• 2013/02/12: Discovery: Obama Proposes 'Meaningful Action' on Climate Change
• 2013/02/12: TP:JR: Climate Hawk Obama: 'If Congress Won't Act Soon To Protect Future Generations, I Will'
• 2013/02/11: Grist: Never mind the State of the Union; here's what Obama can actually do on climate
  

  The latest GAO report puts climate change in the high risk category:

• 2013/02/: GAO: Transcript for: High Risk: Climate Change
• 2013/02/16: CCurrents: Climate Change Added To U.S. Government "High Risk" List
• 2013/02/15: IPSNews: Climate Change Added to U.S. Government "High Risk" List
  For the first time, a U.S. government auditor has added climate change to a list of issues that pose the greatest financial risk to the government and country. It is also warning that Washington is markedly unprepared to deal with the scope of the problem.
• 2013/02/14: Reuters: US government risks financial exposure from climate change -GAO
  Infrastructure, flood insurance, disaster relief vulnerable - Congressional watchdog report follows Obama's vow to act - First time climate change risks have been cited
• 2013/02/14: WaPo: Climate change could burn a hole in the government's finances, GAO says
  As climate change leads to more frequent and destructive natural disasters and threatens crop yields, bridges and other infrastructure, the federal government faces big financial risks that it is poorly positioned to address, auditors said Thursday. These risks, along with the threat of gaps in critical weather forecasting satellites that could last years, topped a biennial list released Thursday of federal programs at high risk of waste, fraud, abuse or financial loss. "The federal government is terribly exposed to this change," Gene L. Dodaro, comptroller general and director of the Government Accountability Office, said in announcing why climate change made his agency's high-risk list. "The government needs a much more strategic and centralized approach."
• 2013/02/14: CCP: GAO: Climate change is 'serious financial risk' to US government
• 2013/02/14: TMoS: US Government Accounting Office - Climate Change Poses Big Financial Risks to Federal Government
• 2013/02/14: Guardian(UK): Obama acting too slowly on climate change risks, government audit finds
  For first time, climate change makes list of the Government Accountability Office's biennial review of risks facing the US
• 
  

  Now that he doesn't need their vote any more, how will Obama treat liberals and their policy issues?

   

• 2013/02/15: UCSUSA:B: President's Proposed Energy Security Trust Could Help, But Much More Needed to Address Oil Use
• 2013/02/14: TP:JR: Denis Hayes: Five Things The President Should Do To Tackle Climate Change
• 2013/02/12: RollCall: Obama Faces New Pressure on Canadian Oil Sands
• 2013/02/13: Impolitical: Obama on climate change
  

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2013/02/16: Guardian(UK): Fracking is the only way to achieve Obama climate change goals, says senior scientist
  America will only achieve the ambitious climate change goals outlined by President Barack Obama last week by encouraging wide-scale fracking for natural gas over the next few years. That is the advice of one of the nation's senior scientists, Professor William Press, a member of the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
• 2013/02/13: Reuters: White House wants $2 billion to give cleaner transport a boost
• 2013/02/13: PBS: Ouster of Scientist from EPA Panel Shows Industry Clout
  Deborah Rice served as chair of an EPA panel assessing the safety levels of flame retardants in 2007, but her removal from that panel led some to believe that a powerful industry lobbying group had influenced the EPA and unfairly targeted the scientist.
• 2013/02/12: NOAA:AF: NOAA Fisheries finds ESA listing of Alaska cold-water corals is not warranted
• 2013/02/14: AllGov: EPA Allowed Chemical Industry to Control Panel Assessing Cancer Danger in Drinking Water
• 2013/02/12: PhiladelphiaInquirer: EPA releases data on 7,674 chemicals
• 2013/02/12: UCSUSA: FERC Inquiry on Natural Gas Reliance -- Renewable Energy Can Reduce Risks of Natural Gas Shortages, Price Hikes
• 2013/02/11: AutoBG: EPA approves new blender pump for E15 fuel stations, 4-gallon rule still in effect
• 2013/02/10: Grist: Can USDA's climate reality message take root with denialist farmers?
  

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2013/02/16: Guardian(UK): The best solution on climate change requires Congress to act by US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt)
  I introduced a bill to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions because it's the right move for current and future generations
• 2013/02/16: CSW: Congress re-boots on climate, Pt. 1: Senate climate science briefing
• 2013/02/15: ScienceInsider: Once Again, U.S. Lawmakers Move to Head Off Helium Crisis
• 2013/02/15: TreeHugger: Senators Boxer and Sanders introduce climate bill. Is it DOA? And is that okay?
• 2013/02/15: Grist:Sanders and Boxer introduce 'fee and dividend' climate bill; greens tickled pink
• 2013/02/15: NatureNB: Fourth-time lucky for US open access bill?
• 2013/02/14: TP:JR: The Newly Proposed Carbon Tax Will Fight Global Warming, Protect Low-Income Americans And Reduce The Deficit
• 2013/02/14: CCP: Senators Boxer and Sanders co-sponsor a fee-and-dividend bill to fight climate change
• 2013/02/13: TP:JR: GOP 'Savior' Marco Rubio Mocks Climate Change
• 2013/02/13: RTCC: Senate to be presented with US carbon tax plans
  [...] Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer and Independent Bernie Sanders have arranged a press conference on Thursday to announce what they call "comprehensive legislation on climate change".
• 2013/02/13: TheHill:e2W: Hydropower bill sails through House
• 2013/02/13: CCP: Ed Markey: Forward on Climate: The Climate Cliff
• 2013/02/12: ICN: Sen. Whitehouse's Climate Crusade Aims to Awaken Congress 'Sleepwalking Through History'
  When the Rhode Island Democrat takes the floor each week to lecture his colleagues on climate, the room is usually empty. But still he persists. In October 2011, when most politicians were doing everything they could to avoid speaking publicly about climate change, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse gave a 23-minute speech on the Senate floor detailing the perils of carbon pollution.
• 2013/02/12: BBerg: CNOOC Wins Final Approval for $15.1 Billion Nexen Buy
  CNOOC Ltd., China's biggest oil and natural gas producer, won approval to acquire the U.S. assets of Nexen Inc., its last regulatory hurdle in the $15.1 billion purchase of the Canadian energy company. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States approved the deal, which is now expected to close the week of Feb. 25, Nexen said in a statement released on CNW today. The panel reviews takeovers by foreign-owned companies for national security implications.
• 
  

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

   

• 2013/02/13: TP:JR: [NRDC head, Frances] Beinecke to Congress: Protect The Public From Fracking
  

  While in the UK:

• 2013/02/15: Guardian(UK): Secret funding of climate sceptics is not restricted to the US
  In the UK, wealthy rightwing donors also finance campaigns against policies to reduce greenhouse gases
• 2013/02/12: Guardian(UK): Report calls for huge expansion of experimental nuclear plants
  Development of new technology would move UK away from fossil fuels and generate two-thirds of power by 2050
• 
  

  And in Europe:

   

• 2013/02/15: EurActiv: Nations seen going separate ways on carbon as EU efforts falter
  Europe has failed to raise carbon prices enough to spur green energy use but now the emissions trading system (ETS) could face its final blow in a European Parliament vote on 19 February. The lack of European Union-wide progress means more nations are expected to follow the example of Britain and take action on their own. EU efforts in the immediate term are focused on the vote in the EU legislative's environment committee which will provide the next signal of whether a plan to bolster the ETS can proceed. According to some analysts, the vote is too close to call.
• 2013/02/15: EurActiv: Fate of green CAP plans hangs on Parliament
  Conservationists angered by efforts to "gut" Europe's future farm policy are banking on the full European Parliament to protect the environmental standards proposed by the European Commission. With the full Parliament due to vote on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) the night of 12 March, environmental campaigners hope for a change of course after the Parliament's agriculture committee and the EU Council both backed changes to weaken some of the Commission's 'greening' proposals.
• 2013/02/15: CCP: No future for shale gas fracking in Germany
• 2013/02/14: DerSpiegel: Un-Natural Gas: Fracking Set to Shake Up German Campaign
  Germans are wary of fracking, but that hasn't stopped Berlin from moving ahead to create legal guidelines for the controversial natural gas extraction method. The opposition is up in arms and the issue could dog Chancellor Merkel as she campaigns for re-election.
• 2013/02/14: EUO: EU could have 100% green energy by 2050 [says WWF]
• 2013/02/13: Reuters: Thirty firms urge EU policymakers to save carbon market: letter
  Thirty firms and organizations have written to European policy-makers urging them to vote in favor next week of a plan to support the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which has sunk to record lows.
• 2013/02/13: EurActiv: Oettinger gives thumbs up to [TAP] trans-Adriatic pipeline
  The EU's Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger welcomed the signature today (13 February) of an agreement between the governments of Italy, Albania and Greece to build the Trans-Adriatic pipeline TAP, as a possible component of the Southern gas corridor linking the EU to the resource-rich Caspian region.
• 2013/02/13: EurActiv: Report: Europe could halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
  By 2030, Europe could be generating more than 40% of its energy from renewables, using 38% less energy than in 2005 and emitting 50% less greenhouse gases than it did in 1990, a new WWF report shows.
• 2013/02/13: DerSpiegel: Losing Steam: Massive Rail Project Haunts Merkel Campaign
  The bottom appears to be falling out of one of the costliest construction projects ever undertaken by the German government. Amid delays and cost overruns, government players in the Stuttgart 21 train station venture are looking for the exit door. It could become a problem for Chancellor Merkel ahead of fall elections.
• 2013/02/12: EurActiv: Whistleblowers: Voluntary energy savings targets met by 'tricks and abuse'
  Non-binding energy efficiency goals are meant to be treated with reverence but are routinely ignored, ticked off, or met by using legislative scams, ex-government officials have told EurActiv.
• 2013/02/12: NatureN: Europe scales back research plans -- Leaders propose 13% cut to commission's proposals
• 2013/02/12: OilChange: Germany Says "Nein" to Fracking
• 2013/02/12: BBC: EU budget deal for farmers raises wildlife concerns
  The European Commission is fighting a rearguard action to force farmers to work in a way that benefits the environment. The Commission, which drafts EU laws, proposed that farmers should have to "earn" a third of their subsidies by protecting wildlife better.
• 2013/02/11: EurActiv: Water rights e-petition first to get 1 million signatures
  Organisers of a European Citizens' Initiative that seeks to halt sales of public water utilities say they have gathered one million signatures from across Europe, becoming the first such group to do so since the grass-roots efforts were launched last spring.
• 2013/02/11: EurActiv: Energy budget cuts will hit EU's low-carbon ambitions: Official
  Cuts to the energy infrastructure package in the EU's new budget will increase costs and delays to the European Commission's plans for a low carbon economy by 2050, Philip Lowe, the EU's top energy civil servant said on Friday (8 February).
• 2013/02/11: ScienceInsider: In Downsized E.U. Budget, Mixed News for Research
• 2013/02/11: SciAm:PI: A (Dimming) City of Light
  

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2013/02/16: ABC(Au): Survivors mark 30th anniversary of Ash Wednesday
• 2013/02/16: ABC(Au): Ash Wednesday horror burnt into survivor's memory
• 2013/02/16: ABC(Au): Services held to mark Ash Wednesday anniversary
• 2013/02/15: ABC(Au): Human remains found after WA fires
• 2013/02/15: ABC(Au): Blueprint maps out future for Australian agriculture
• 2013/02/14: ABC(Au): NFF unveils long-term blueprint for farm sector
  The National Farmers Federation will today unveil a comprehensive blueprint for the Australian agricultural sector out to 2050. The Blueprint for Australian Agriculture is the product of 18 months of consultations with farmers, agribusiness, government and community groups, and sets out immediate as well as long-term priorities for the sector.
• 2013/02/14: ABC(Au): Re-thinking Australia's attitude to fire
• 2013/02/14: ABC(Au): Bushfire roadblocks raise legal questions
• 2013/02/16: ABC(Au): Minerals Council warns government over tax changes
  The mining industry has sent another warning shot to the Federal Government that it'll fight any change to the mining tax. Yesterday, the Labor Minister Simon Crean created confusion when he said the Government was seeking to address the design flaw and change the tax. He later said the design wouldn't be changed. Since it was revealed the tax has only raised $126 million, The Greens and Independents have been lobbying for the removal of a provision which allows state and territory royalties to be deducted from the tax.
• 2013/02/13: PlanetJ: Australia's Minister for Greenwash
  Australian Environment Minister Tony Burke -- or as the Greens call him, Minister Against the Environment -- on Monday signed conditional approvals for three new coal and coal seam gas (CSG) mines in New South Wales.
• 2013/02/13: WtD: Scepticism damaging the conservative political brand: Aussie media becoming alert to the paranoid style of climate sceptics
• 2013/02/13: ABC(Au): Regional councils bag forest peace deal
  Tasmania's forest peace deal has been described as another "land grab" by environmental groups. An Upper House inquiry is scrutinising legislation needed to protect 504,000 hectares of native forest from logging. The Dorset Mayor, Barry Jarvis, says a multi-billion dollar industry is being "sacrificed" and the compensation on offer is "paltry". He has accused the state and federal governments of "pandering" to environmentalists.
• 2013/02/13: ABC(Au): Carbon farm funding arrangements questioned
  The Federal Government has been questioned about why it did not demand a management plan before funding a carbon farming project in the Northern Territory.
• 2013/02/11: ABC(Au): 9pc drop in emissions from power generators
  There has been a 9 per cent drop in emissions from electricity generators during the first six months of carbon pricing, a Senate committee has been told. Last July the Federal Government introduced a carbon price of $23 per tonne for businesses that are big polluters.
• 2013/02/11: TheAge: Attacks on climate science ebb after start of carbon tax
  

  Major battles have broken out over coal seam gas near towns and farms:

• 2013/02/16: ABC(Au): Dungog joins CSG debate
  Dungog Council will weigh into the Coal Seam Gas debate for the first time, at next week's ordinary meeting. Councillors will consider adopting a policy that no coal seam gas exploration, infrastructure or mining be carried out within the shire.
• 2013/02/15: ABC(Au): Poowong residents to make CSG-free declaration
  South Gippsland residents plan to form a 50-metre human sign voicing their opposition to coal seam gas (CSG) mining and exploration this weekend. The Victorian Government has granted mining company ECI International, two CSG exploration licences covering the Poowong area. A spokeswoman for the group CSG Free Poowong, Ursuala Alquier, says residents plan to form a 50-metre human sign that says 'We Are CSG Free'.
• 2013/02/14: ABC(Au): Minister can't rule out CSG or mining in wine region
  The Minister for Resources and Energy Chris Hartcher says he cannot rule out coal seam gas or mining in the Hunter's world-renowned wine growing region. After a meeting with the Department of Planning yesterday vignerons say they must now prove that individual parcels of land in Wine Country are critical, rather than a blanket protection approach promised last year. One vigneron has described it as 'Swiss cheesing' the region and opening the door for CSG drilling.
• 2013/02/13: ABC(Au): Federal-state brawl over NSW gas and coal projects
  A political stoush has erupted after the Federal Government approved three significant resource projects in NSW.
• 2013/02/13: ABC(Au): Queensland moves to build shale oil industry
• 2013/02/12: ABC(Au): Oakeshott furious about Gloucester CSG approval
  Independent MP Robert Oakeshott says he's gutted by the Federal Environment Minister's decision to allow coal seam gas mining in his federal NSW electorate of Lyne. Tony Burke has given conditional approval for AGL's project in the Gloucester Basin, subject to 36 conditions. It follows the NSW Government approving AGL's plans in early 2011 for up to 110 gas wells, a processing plant, power plant and pipeline to Hexham. Mr Oakeshott says it will hard to contain community anger over this decision.
• 2013/02/12: ABC(Au): Coal Seam Gas protests on the north coast likened to anti-Vietnam protests in the sixties
• 2013/02/12: ABC(Au): Fed Opposition suggests CSG buffer zones for NSW
  The Federal Government's also under pressure to settle community concerns by imposing tougher rules for coal seam gas projects. The Federal Environment Minister has written to Premier Barry O'Farrell, giving him until tomorrow to spell out how he plans to deal with coal seam gas projects in urban areas and near regional centres. So far there's been no response. While the standoff continues, the Federal Opposition is pointing to Queensland as offering the template for reducing conflict over such projects, banning mining and coal seam gas developments within two kilometres of towns.
• 
  

  It's a long way to the September election:

   

• 2013/02/17: ABC(Au): Labor, Gillard slip in latest Nielsen poll
• 2013/02/15: ABC(Au): Abbott reaffirms commitment to public service cuts
• 2013/02/15: ABC(Au): Coalition water plan could include Menindee channel
  The Member for Farrer, Sussan Ley, says building a new channel linking the Menindee Lakes to the Darling River is the best way to save water in the far west. A leaked draft discussion paper for the Coalition identifies 100 possible water projects that would cost 30 billion dollars if they all went ahead.
• 2013/02/14: ABC(Au): Combet unloads on 'bullshit artist' Abbott
• 2013/02/14: NewAnthropocene: Tony Abbott Damming Up the Country
• 2013/02/14: ABC(Au): Northern dams a good idea, says pastoralist
  The chairman of the Northern Territory Farmers' Association says he supports the building of dams across northern Australia. A leaked federal Coalition proposal lists 100 sites which could be considered for dams to be built across the country. Phil Howie from Maneroo Station in the Douglas Daly region says while the Association doesn't have a policy position, he personally supports the idea.
• 2013/02/14: ABC(Au): Coalition water plan leak makes splash in north
  An environment group has described a federal Coalition plan to to build dams to irrigate northern Australia as a "vampire that has to be slayed a few times". A leaked draft discussion paper identifies 100 possible dam projects around the nation, with a heavy emphasis on irrigating a new "food bowl" in the Top End. But Dr Stuart Blanch, director of the Northern Territory Environment Centre, says there is a lot of evidence the plan would not work.
• 2013/02/14: ABC(Au): Abbott backs plans to build more dams
  Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Australians need to get over their "dam phobia", amid reports the Coalition is considering a multi-billion dollar plan to build up to 100 dams across the country.
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/02/17: ABC(Au): Water contamination accusations
  Sydney Water is being accused of covering up the real cause of a water contamination that led to dozens of residents in Sydney's south east to fall ill. In late December, more than 100 residents around Botany complained after drinking water that many described as smelling like gas and tasting of disinfectant. On the day of the contamination there was a leak of toxic groundwater at the nearby Orica chemical plant.
• 2013/02/16: DD: Australia flood coverage rises to unaffordable levels - 'Most people can't afford insurance. It's beyond anybody's pocket.'
• 2013/02/13: ABC(Au): Government announces plan to avoid 'swiss cheese' Basin buybacks
• 2013/02/12: TheConversation: Is the Murray- Darling Basin Plan enlightened? Ask Voltaire
• 2013/02/12: ABC(Au): Parched outback facing 'water drought'
  A south-west Queensland mayor says graziers in the region are facing an extreme water shortage and some homesteads may run out of domestic water if rain does not fall soon.
• 
  

  While in the Indian subcontinent:

   

• 2013/02/15: Guardian(UK): Land rights activists angered as India's forest act undermined
  The government's decision to allow major infrastructure projects to go ahead without obtaining consent for forest clearance paves the way for the violation of village land rights, say rights groups
• 2013/02/14: CCurrents: Letter From The Women Of Koodankulam
  

  And in China:

• 2013/02/16: Guardian(UK): Chinese struggle through 'airpocalypse' smog
  Pollution has hit record levels recently, prompting citizens to ask if they're paying for economic growth with their health
• 
  

  While in Japan:

   

• 2013/02/10: JapanTimes: Nuclear power and press freedom
  Japan fell from 22nd place to 53rd in the rankings of press freedom last year, according to the nonprofit organization Reporters Without Borders. Japan's plummet was attributed to a single factor -- the lack of access to information related to the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. In the past, Japan could be relatively proud of its reputation for press freedom compared with that of most countries. But being ranked lower lately than countries such as El Salvador or Haiti is an embarrassing reminder that press freedom can quickly erode under pressure from the government and corporations. In reporting on the serious disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, many reporters have met with restricted access, lack of transparency and even lawsuits.
• 
  

  And South America:

   

• 2013/02/15: CSM: Why Ecuador's Correa looks set to win Sunday's presidential election
• 2013/02/10: Salon: "To get the gold, they will have to kill every one of us"
  The most-storied warrior tribe in Ecuador prepares to fight as the government sells gold-laden land to China
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/02/15: iPolitics: Stephen Harper's pipeline problem
• 2013/02/15: CBC: Canadian diplomats continue oilsands defence in Maine -- Politicians in Raymond, Maine hear supporters and opponents of anti-oilsands resolution
• 2013/02/15: CDreams: Environmental Activists Pose Security Threat: Canadian Government
• 2013/02/15: CCP: Canada's environmental activists seen as 'threat to national security' by RCMP
• 2013/02/13: PostMedia: Harper's fish-protection changes bog down
  Mining spokesman says developers have been left facing uncertainty when dealing with federal Fisheries Department
• 2013/02/13: PostMedia: Conservatives' Keystone diplomacy features an unflattering shade of green
  It's not easy being green? Don't tell that to federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver. The same man who called environmentalists radicals who "threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda," is now casually donning a green suit ("This old thing?") as part of the federal government's campaign to convince the Obama administration that Canada is serious about climate change.
• 2013/02/11: PI:B: Departing environmental commissioner challenges Ottawa to step up protection
  

  The IdleNoMore movement is pausing:

• 2013/02/10: PostMedia: Idle No More movement fizzles out online, analysis finds
  The grassroots indigenous rights movement that garnered momentum across Canada this winter - grabbing the attention of government and sparking global solidarity protests - has all but fizzled out online, according to a new analysis of Idle No More's web traffic. Online activity related to Idle No More - on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, online forums and in the online news - has fallen 84 per cent in four weeks, which suggests "public interest and internal energy are currently shadows of their former selves," digital public affairs strategist Mark Blevis wrote in his newest analysis on Sunday.
• 
  

  Post SOTU, Harper has started a PR campaign to convince the yanks his gang is greener than green:

   

• 2013/02/17: TStar: New emissions numbers a minor victory among many defeats: Editorial
  A new report from Environment Canada carries good news on declining pollutants, but it [doesn't mention GHGs]
• 2013/02/16: DeSmogBlog: The Credibility Gap: All Talk and Not Much Action on Climate Change
• 2013/02/16: G&M: Obama's climate talk may galvanize action in Canada
  Consternation is the order of the day in Ottawa and Alberta. U.S. President Barack Obama has rediscovered climate change as a priority. The federal and Alberta governments have been caught flat-footed. [...] Stephen Harper's government has been promising to introduce regulations on emissions for the oil and gas industry for so long that people have forgotten when the promising began.
• 2013/02/15: 350orBust: President Obama's SOTU Sends Message To Canada: Act On Climate Change Or Get Left Behind
• 2013/02/15: CBC: Emissions of harmful pollutants fell in 2011, federal data show
• 2013/02/15: CBC: Ottawa announces new financial penalties to increase pipeline safety
• 2013/02/15: G&M: Environment Canada to report drop in pollutants amid pipeline debate
  Ottawa is set to proclaim a dramatic decline in key pollutants like heavy metals and sulphur as it seeks to burnish its environmental record in the face of criticism at home and in the United States. In a report to be released on Friday, Environment Canada says emissions of mercury and lead were down 23 per cent and 21 per cent respectively in 2011 from the previous year, while sulphur oxides were 7 per cent lower and nitrogen oxide was down 6 per cent. The 2011 report does not cover carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...
• 2013/02/13: ParliamAnthill: (cartoon - Sadlemyer) ObamAnt's State of the Union Address
• 2013/02/13: P3: Canadian Environmental regulations are falling behind
• 2013/02/13: TMoS: U.S. Ambassador - Time for Canada to Get Serious About Climate Change
• 2013/02/13: CBC: Obama's climate challenge aimed at Canada, U.S. envoy says
  President Barack Obama's State of the Union message to act swiftly on climate change should be interpreted as a challenge to Ottawa as well, says the U.S. ambassador to Canada. Obama used Tuesday's speech to present Congress with a choice: either agree to market-based solutions to climate change, or else the president will use his executive powers to achieve the same result. U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson said, in an interview with The Canadian Press, the message to move more aggressively against climate change was meant as much for Canada as it was for the United States.
• 2013/02/13: DeSmogBlog: Why Canadians Should Care about Keystone XL Pipeline Protests at the White House
• 2013/02/12: CSM: Keystone XL pipeline: Is Canada preparing for a US rejection?
• 2013/02/11: G&M: Tories try new tack to sell U.S. on Keystone pipeline
  As more than twenty thousand activists prepare to converge in front of the White House this weekend to oppose Keystone XL, the Harper government plans to use a two-track message to persuade the U.S. government to approve the pipeline. It will claim to be as serious about battling climate change as President Barack Obama, and will stress the national security and economic benefits that would result from the project's construction. But it will be an uphill sell as Ottawa has continued to delay introduction of long-promised regulations that would rein in emissions from the oil sands, which American environmentalists have targeted as "dirty oil."
• 
  

  The Harper gang is trying to impose media restrictions on American scientists:

   

• 2013/02/07: IcySeas: Academic Freedom and International Collaborations
• 2013/02/13: PostMedia: Feds new confidentiality rules on Arctic project called 'chilling'
  A bid by the federal government to impose sweeping confidentiality rules on an Arctic science project has run into serious resistance in the United States. "I'm not signing it," said Andreas Muenchow, of the University of Delaware, who has taken issue with the wording that Canada's Fisheries and Oceans department has proposed for the Canada-U.S. project. It's an affront to academic freedom and a "potential muzzle," said Muenchow, who has been collaborating with DFO scientists on the project in the Eastern Arctic since 2003. DFO's proposed confidentiality provisions say all technology and "other information" related to the Arctic project "shall be deemed to be confidential and neither party may release any such information to others in any way whatsoever without the prior written authorization of the other party." If enforced, Muenchow says the fisheries department could prevent researchers from publishing scientific findings, blogging about their project or sharing information on the project with the media and public, which is encouraged by the U.S. agencies co-funding the project
• 2013/02/15: CBC: Canadian federal research deal 'potentially muzzles' U.S. scientistArctic research agreement contains 'excessively restrictive' language
  The Canadian government is requiring foreign researchers who collaborate with federal scientists to sign agreements that could potentially muzzle them, a U.S. scientist says. Andreas Munchow, a physical oceanographer at the University of Delaware, collaborates with Canadian government scientists on Arctic research. On his blog last week, he posted his concerns about the new language in a research agreement that the Canadian government is asking him to sign. "I believe this is a disturbing political climate change," Munchow wrote. "I feel that it threatens my academic freedom and potentially muzzles my ability to publish data and interpretation and talk timely on science issues of potential public interest without government interference." Munchow posted excerpts from the agreement that stated: "Any technology, data, or other information of any kind related to or arising from the project (collectively "information") shall be deemed confidential and neither party may release any such Information to others in any way whatsoever without the prior written authorization of the other party."
• 2013/02/14: DeSmogBlog: Science Silenced: US Scientist Caught in Canadian Muzzle
  

  The Liberal party leadership vote is scheduled for April 14th:

• 2013/02/16: CBC: Liberal leadership rivals will go toe-to-toe in 3rd debate
  

  The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

• 2013/02/11: TheCanadian: MP John Weston, Rafe Mair Debate Pipeline Risks, Environmental 'Process'
• 2013/02/13: PostMedia: Growing disconnect between gas-focused B.C., rest of Canada on pipeline, [says Jock Finlayson, of the BC Business Council]
• 2013/02/12: PostMedia: B.C. urged [by Chamber of Commerce] to embrace 'historic' oilsands opportunity
  

  Regarding the fabled West-East line:

• 2013/02/14: CBC: Cenovus CEO says company keen to send crude oil east
  Cenovus Energy is keen on a TransCanada proposal to ship crude eastward, especially if the pipeline stretches all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, the CEO of the Calgary-based oil company said Thursday.
• 2013/02/13: InsideHalton: Enbridge officials grilled about pipeline plan
  The city hosted a public meeting last Thursday to give residents a chance to ask Enbridge staff about its Line 9B reversal proposal.
• 2013/02/13: TStar: Crunch time for oil exports puts focus on the east: Tim Harper
  Alberta's revenue problem is ultimately a national problem but a west-east oil pipeline could be the answer.
• 2013/02/11: CBC: Quebec will not block west-east pipeline, Redford says
  

  It should be noted that there is an airship stuck in a hangar just north of Winnipeg ---
  because there are no federal regulations applicable to this new (old) business:

• 2013/02/17: WpgFP: Report flies idea of airships -- Good for Canada, committee says
  

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

• 2013/02/17: ABC(Au): Breakthrough in fish gill disease
  Tasmanian researchers have discovered wild fish have a natural resistance to a fatal gill disease which wreaks havoc with farmed atlantic salmon. Amoebic Gill Disease affects salmon farmed in salt water worldwide.
• 2013/02/12: iPolitics: The DFO and science: a fish story
• 2013/02/11: TheCanadian: Sport Fishing Revenues Dwarf those from Fish Farms
  

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

• 2013/02/16: PostMedia: Vaughn Palmer: So far, 2013 has been an annus horribilus for the B.C. Liberals
  The B.C. Liberals began the year needing major momentum to close a substantial gap in public opinion with the New Democrats before election day. So far, that hasn't happened. With seven weeks gone already, the year has been marred by a string of embarrassments, fizzles and gaffes for the Liberals.
• 2013/02/14: Tyee: Dix's Big Gamble: No Dirt -- As Libs sling mud, NDP leader refuses to go negative. Will out of the box strategy box him in?
• 2013/02/13: CBC: Expansion of B.C. natural gas industry raises concerns -- Premier Clark's proposes LNG exports could pay down provincial debt
• 2013/02/14: iPolitics: BC NDP on track for big win, poll indicates
• 2013/02/14: TheCanadian: Rafe on Liberals' Delusional LNG Scheme
• 2013/02/13: TheCanadian: Mike Smyth Rain's on Christy Clark's LNG Prosperity Fund Parade
• 2013/02/12: PI:B: Vancouver's energy efficiency initiative should be applauded, not dismissed
• 2013/02/12: CBC: B.C. to use gas revenues to pay down debt
  Premier Christy Clark sets out government priorities in throne speech B.C. Premier Christy Clark says she wants to use the trillion-dollar development potential of liquefied natural gas in the province by establishing a B.C. Prosperity Fund to pay down the provincial debt.
• 2013/02/11: BBerg: British Columbia's Dix Says He'll Reclaim Pipeline Powers
  Adrian Dix, British Columbia's main opposition leader who opposes Enbridge Inc.'s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, says he will take back the power to block such projects if his New Democratic Party forms the next government in the Canadian province. Dix, who leads in public opinion polls ahead of the May 14 election, said he'd scrap the Environmental Assessment Equivalency Agreement with Canada's National Energy Board. That would restore provincial environmental oversight of proposed projects such as Enbridge Inc.'s planned C$6 billion ($6 billion) Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry crude from Alberta's oil sands, the world's third-largest deposits, to overseas markets. The equivalency agreement means "a federal decision is the province's decision," Dix said in a Feb. 7 interview in Vancouver. "There's a 30-day withdrawal clause in the agreement and we would invoke that in the first week in government."
• 
  

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

   

• 2013/02/16: CPW: Canada's tar sands are the fifth largest climate threat in the world [GP report]
• 2013/02/16: DeSmogBlog: Oil Aboard! Tar Sands Industry Eyes Nexen Rail Alternative to Stalled Pipelines
• 2013/02/13: OilChange: Tar Sands Directly Hurting "Brand Canada"
• 2013/02/10: TMoS: A Tar Sands Compromise, One They'll Have to Refuse
  

  Also in Alberta:

• 2013/02/15: PostMedia: OpEd: Harper's policies undermine our energy ambitions
  The tumultuous approval processes for the Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines highlight two glaring problems with the federal government's approach to energy policy. First, Canada's oil and gas industry is extremely vulnerable because it relies almost entirely on a single export market, the U.S., for both these products.
  [...]
  Second, it has become clear that large energy infrastructure projects are only going to be built if the public accords them the social licence, that is, the permission to build them.
• 2013/02/13: DClimenhaga: Sorry about what we said, Tom, but spare a sigh for Alberta, latest victim of Dutch Disease
• 2013/02/12: CBC: Nexen takeover clears last hurdle
• 2013/02/12: CBC: TransCanada profit, revenue, disappoint
  Calgary-based pipeline giant TransCanada Corp. is reporting a lower fourth-quarter profit that also fell short of analyst estimates. Its net income fell to $306 million or 43 cents per share, while its "comparable" earnings, which exclude most unusual items, declined to $318 million or 45 cents per share.
• 
  

  Wynne has won. Now what happens?

   

• 2013/02/15: BCLSB: Kathleen Wynne Reaffirms Support For Green Energy Act
• 2013/02/15: TStar: For Kathleen Wynne, the hard part begins: Salutin
• 2013/02/14: BCLSB: Can Anti-Wind Activists Reign Of Terror be Stopped?
• 2013/02/12: BCLSB: More Threats From The Anti-Wind Camp
  

  While in la Belle Province:

• 2013/02/12: CBC: Oil drilling concerns to be addressed says environment minister
  Quebec's environment minister says the province will act soon to address concerns over how close to homes and waterways oil companies can drill.
• 
  

  In the Maritimes:

   

• 2013/02/15: CBC: Shale gas rules in New Brunswick among 'strictest' -- Chemicals used in hydro-fracking must be disclosed
  Energy Minister Craig Leonard says the rules governing the oil and gas industry are strong, but reasonable.Energy Minister Craig Leonard says the rules governing the oil and gas industry are strong, but reasonable. (CBC) The New Brunswick government says its new rules governing the oil and gas industry will be the among the strictest in North America. But critics are already questioning the government's ability to enforce them since they won't be written into legislation.
• 
  

  In the North:

   

• 2013/02/17: Eureka: ArcticNet recommends practical solutions to improve standard of living in Canada's north
• 2013/02/14: DeSmogBlog: Enbridge "Integrity Dig" Reveals Two Potential Pipeline Leaks in NWT
  

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2013/02/16: CPW: Prominent Canadians Support Forward on Climate Rally
• 2013/02/12: PaiD: A Timely Reminder From Linda McQuaig
• 2013/02/10: TMoS: Canada's Sub-Prime Disaster Waiting in Harper's Wings
  

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

• 2013/02/15: CleanBreak: GDP doesn't accurately reflect the true impact -- positive and negative -- that mining has on our collective well being
• 2013/02/15: Eureka: To feed the world, give women equal rights
  Around the world, at least a billion people are hungry or need better diets. To feed a global population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, we will need to increase food production by as much as 70 percent, most analysts believe. Achieving that goal requires civilization to address overpopulation and overconsumption through a bottom-up movement focused on agricultural, environmental and demographic planning, among other strategies, argues Stanford Woods Institute Senior Fellow Paul Ehrlich (Biology). A crucial first step is to give equal rights to women worldwide, Ehrlich says.
• 2013/02/13: TreeHugger: The sharing economy is here to stay
• 2013/01/22: TNI: Corporate power and crisis - Introduction to TNI's State of Power 2013
  Susan George provides an introduction to TNI's State of Power 2013 report, exposing how the unprecedented concentration of corporate and elite power is at the root of our economic and ecological crisis.
• 2013/02/13: CCurrents: Pulsing Paradigm or Steady State?
• 2013/02/10: CCurrents: Concentration Of Corporate And Elite Power At The Root Of Economic And Ecological Crisis
  

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

• 2013/02/15: al Jazeera: Unhappy Valentine's Day - women's silent killer
  Women and girls in many countries find it almost impossible to access basic sexual and reproductive health services.
• 2013/02/13: Guardian(UK): Latin America still a bastion of draconian anti-abortion laws
  

  How do the media measure up?

• 2013/02/16: ClimateSight: A Phone Conversation
• 2013/02/15: P3: Environmental Coverage Considered Elitist
• 2013/02/10: CJR: Captain Nemo -- 'Behemoth blizzard' dominates weekend news
• 2013/02/14: CJR: All charged up -- Elon Musk says NYT review of a Tesla sedan was dishonest; Broder, Sullivan fire back
• 2013/02/14: CCP: "Exxon Hates Your Children" ad pulled by Comcast after being pressured by Exxon
• 2013/02/13: TP:JR: Washington Post Overlooks Obama's Extensive Remarks On Climate And Energy
• 2013/02/12: Guardian(UK): BBC removes climate claim from repeated final Africa episode
  Part of Sir David Attenborough's narration is cut after an earlier assertion that the continent was warming by 3.5C
• 2013/02/11: TP:JR: Washington Post On Climate...
• 2013/02/11: PSinclair: Fox Airhead Discovers: It's Not Always Sunny in Dusseldorf
• 2013/02/11: BBC: The BBC has re-edited the final episode of David Attenborough's nature series, Africa, on BBC One to remove a piece of commentary about climate change
• 2013/02/10: TreeHugger: Tired Title, Boffo Finish in "It's Not Easy Being Green"
  

  Regarding the quality of blogosphere discussion:

• 2013/02/16: SciAm:DGS: More on rudeness, civility, and the care and feeding of online conversations
• 2013/02/14: EconView: Trolls Win: Rude Blog Comments Dim the Allure of Science Online
  

  Here is something for your library:

• 2013/02/14: CassandrasLegacy: [Book Discussion] _Immoderate Greatness, Why Civilizations Fail_ by William Ophuls
• 2013/02/10: CCurrents: Flood, Migration, War: Human Cost Of Climate Crisis
  [Book Review] _Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change_ by Andrew Guzman
• 2013/02/15: Asia Times: [Book Review] _The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change_ by Al Gore
• 2013/02/14: Resilience: [Book Review _Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era_ by Amory Lovins & coauthors
  

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2013/02/16: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Jennifer Francis' Newest Lecture online
• 2013/02/15: AutoBG: Biofuel group Fuels America gives snarky Valentine to Big Oil
• 2013/02/13: CCentral: Senate Holds Briefing on the Latest Climate Science
• 2013/02/13: PSinclair: Minding Nemo: Jeff Masters on Snowstorms in a Warming World
• 2013/02/14: LeDaro: Shale Gas: Fracking is very dangerous for the environment
• 2013/02/12: PSinclair: Paul Douglas on Powerful Storms and Ocean Temps
• 2013/02/12: Moyhu: High Resolution SST regional movies
• 2013/02/11: Grist: Seed savers: Vandana Shiva and female farmers stand up to Monsanto
• 2013/02/11: TreeHugger: 'Gallons of Light': Best Tesla commercial so far?
• 2013/02/11: CSM: Epic glacier collapse caught on camera
  Amateur photographer Christian Grosso got a surprise recently when he visited a glacier in Argentina's Patagonia region: an enormous ice bridge connected to the glacier ruptured and fell, causing a huge wave in the lake below. Luckily he had his camera to capture the event. And another visitor caught a video of the ice falling. The glacier, known as Perito Moreno, is one of the largest in Patagonia, a region at the southern tip of South America, according to the NASA Earth Observatory.
• 2013/02/11: PSinclair: Germany's 10 Huge Lessons About Solar Energy
  

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent. See also:

• 2013/02/15: EneNews: Years in prison for CEO charged with dumping fracking waste? Full tanker trucks of toxic fluid released directly into storm drain...
• 2013/02/16: CSM: US agriculture wary as Monsanto heads to Supreme Court
• 2013/02/13: WSWS: Chevron fined for "willful violations" in California refinery fire
• 2013/02/12: AutoBG: Trucking association files appeal in federal court on CARB regulation
  

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

• 2013/02/14: SciAm:PI: Burning Buried Sunshine
• 2013/02/14: RealEconomics: A conversion to renewables has many steps
• 2013/02/12: RTCC: Virgin chief Richard Branson plans to use the tiny Caribbean island he owns to test the effectiveness of renewable energy systems for small island states
• 2013/02/10: Resilience: BP Energy Outlook 2030: An exercise in wish fulfillment
  

  What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?

• 2013/02/13: RTCC: Shale gas finds could kill Nuclear in UK
• 2013/02/14: Guardian(UK): Shale oil surge poses threat to renewable energy, PwC warns
• 2013/02/11: PSinclair: New Wind Turbines Compete Head on with Cheapest Fossil Fuel
  

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

• 2013/02/15: CCP: No future for shale gas fracking in Germany
• 2013/02/15: BCLSB: Shale Gas Boom Going Bust In Bakken?
• 2013/02/15: CBC: Shale gas rules in New Brunswick among 'strictest' -- Chemicals used in hydro-fracking must be disclosed
• 2013/02/15: EneNews: Years in prison for CEO charged with dumping fracking waste? Full tanker trucks of toxic fluid released directly into storm drain...
• 2013/02/14: Coloradoan: Data points to environmental, health impact of Fort Collins-area fracking accident
  20 people required to wrest control of well - the release of a very large amount of "flowback" water
• 2013/02/13: DeSmogBlog: NY Fracking Decision Delayed by Cuomo Administration, Too Early to Pop Champagne Bottles
• 2013/02/12: NYT: New York Governor Puts Off Decision on Drilling
• 2013/01/25: ProPublica: Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need to Drink
  Mexico City plans to draw drinking water from a mile-deep aquifer, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The Mexican effort challenges a key tenet of U.S. clean water policy: that water far underground can be intentionally polluted because it will never be used.
• 2013/02/12: CCP: Mexico City's Mile-Deep Aquifer Tapping Suggests U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need
• 2013/02/11: DeSmogBlog: NY Fracking Scandal: Seven Groups Demand Conflict of Interest Investigation of Cuomo Administration
• 2013/02/12: OilChange: Germany Says "Nein" to Fracking
  

  On the gas and oil front:

• 2013/02/15: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Dated Brent Spot....117.66
  WTI Cushing Spot.....95.86
• 2013/02/16: DeSmogBlog: Industry Funded Front Group Attacks Government Estimates Of Oil Drilling Revenues
• 2013/02/15: RT: Shale energy revolution is worth $2.7 trillion
• 2013/02/13: BBC: Shale oil 'to boost world economy by up to $2.7tn'
  Shale oil production could boost the world economy by up to $2.7tn (£1.7tn) by 2035, according to a report. The extra supply could reach up to 12% of global oil production, or 14 million barrels a day, and push global oil prices down by up to 40%, PricewaterhouseCoopers said. Shale oil and gas have emerged as a viable way to boost energy supplies. However, there are concerns over the process by which the gas is extracted, known as fracking.
• 2013/02/15: OilDrum: Lessons From Past Natural Gas Import Fiascos Suggest A Cautious Approach to Natural Gas Exports
• 2013/02/14: CSM: Are oil super majors falling behind the competition?
• 2013/02/14: TheConversation: How is US non-conventional fossil fuel affecting the rest of the world?
• 2013/02/14: CCP: Fossil fuels stocks may become worthless
• 2013/02/13: EconBrowser: Prices of gasoline and crude oil
• 2013/02/13: TP:JR: 'Drill, Baby, Drill' Fails: Why Gasoline Prices Remain High Despite Oil Boom
• 2013/02/13: GCR: Gas Prices To Be Higher Than Expected In 2013, Says Energy Dept
• 2013/02/10: GulfNews: Shale oil is no threat to oil producers
• 2013/02/11: CSM: BP Energy Outlook: why the oil giant's forecasts are flawed
  

  In the fossil fuel corps:

• 2013/02/13: BBC: CNOOC takeover of Nexen approved by US regulator
• 2013/02/13: WSWS: Chevron fined for "willful violations" in California refinery fire
• 2013/02/12: UCSUSA:B: Oil Companies are Laughing All the Way to the Bank as Different Electric Vehicles Jockey for Position
• 2013/02/12: BBerg: CNOOC Wins Final Approval for $15.1 Billion Nexen Buy
  CNOOC Ltd., China's biggest oil and natural gas producer, won approval to acquire the U.S. assets of Nexen Inc., its last regulatory hurdle in the $15.1 billion purchase of the Canadian energy company. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States approved the deal, which is now expected to close the week of Feb. 25, Nexen said in a statement released on CNW today. The panel reviews takeovers by foreign-owned companies for national security implications.
• 
  

  Regarding oil and the economy:

   

• 2013/02/13: Resilience: How high oil prices lead to recession
  

  And in pipeline news:

• 2013/02/13: EurActiv: Oettinger gives thumbs up to [TAP] trans-Adriatic pipeline
  The EU's Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger welcomed the signature today (13 February) of an agreement between the governments of Italy, Albania and Greece to build the Trans-Adriatic pipeline TAP, as a possible component of the Southern gas corridor linking the EU to the resource-rich Caspian region.
• 2013/02/15: CBC: Enbridge, Energy Partners plan Gulf crude shipments
  Enbridge Inc. and a partner are planning to spend up to $3.4 billion US to reconfigure a natural gas pipeline to carry oil to the eastern Gulf Coast, a market that currently relies on rail and barge for crude shipments. Enbridge and Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners would each own 50 per cent of the project, which would stretch more than 1,100 kilometres from an oil hub at Patoka, Ill., to the St. James hub in Louisiana.
• 2013/02/10: CSM: Will leak detection end the oil pipeline impasse?
  

  Marvelous. Now the USA have their own Mechanical Mordor:

• 2013/02/16: DD: Images from North Dakota's Bakken oil fields boom - 'This is changing the landscape so fast. I grieve now when I leave North Dakota.'
  

  A rush of American triumphalism pervades the energy independence PR campaign. Think it will last?

• 2013/02/11: EENews: 'There's no way to tell' how much gas the U.S. can produce
• 2013/02/12: MetaSD: Energy rich or poor?
  

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2013/02/16: PostMedia: [Gary] Lamphier: Direct threat to Canadian economy posed by U.S. shale oil production
  Remember Peak Oil, the theory that global crude oil supplies have peaked and are in irreversible, long-term decline? The concept got a lot of media play but never really passed the smell test, since it didn't account for the impact of technological change or rising oil prices. In any case, the notion of Peak Oil seems amusingly quaint now that it's been relegated to the same ideological trash bin as Y2K.
• 
  

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

   

• 2013/02/12: RealEconomics: Climate change forces halt In ethanol production
• 2013/02/11: AutoBG: EPA approves new blender pump for E15 fuel stations, 4-gallon rule still in effect
• 2013/02/11: FDL: Climate Change Forces Halt In Ethanol Production
• 2013/02/10: Yahoo:AP: Corn shortage idles 20 ethanol plants nationwide
  

  The answer my friend...:

• 2013/02/11: EIA:TiE: Wind industry installs almost 5,300 MW of capacity in December
• 2013/02/15: TStar: Wind turbine study: Federal government testing hair for stress hormone levels
  The amount of the stress hormone cortisol found in people's hair could help scientists understand the potential health impacts that may arise from exposure to low-frequency noise and vibrations from wind turbines.
• 2013/02/15: Guardian(UK): Media campaign against windfarms funded by anonymous conservatives
  Secretive funding network channelled millions to stop state governments moving towards renewable energy
• 2013/02/12: EurActiv: Wind and solar power capacity surge, report says
  Global wind power expanded by almost 20% in 2012 to reach a new peak of 282 gigawatts (GW) of total installed capacity, while solar power reached more than 100GW, having more than doubled in two years. More than 45GW of new wind turbines arrived in 2012, with China and the US leading the way with 13GW each, while Germany, India and the UK were next with about 2GW each.
• 2013/02/12: TP:JR: Global Wind Capacity Increased Almost 20% In 2012 to 282 Gigawatts
• 2013/02/11: Guardian(UK): Wind power capacity grew 20% globally in 2012, figures show
• 2013/02/11: AutoBG: Honda installing wind turbines to make cars with wind power at Ohio factory
  

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2013/02/15: TreeHugger: SolarCity makes residential contracts publicly available
• 2013/02/11: Grist: Solar skirmish: V3Solar defends its technology against naysayers
• 2013/02/12: Eureka: New world record efficiency for thin film silicon solar cells
  A 10.7 percent conversion rate has been achieved using less than 2 micrometers of raw material
• 2013/02/12: TUWien: New Material Promises Better Solar Cells
• 2013/02/11: PSinclair: Germany's 10 Huge Lessons About Solar Energy
• 2013/02/11: ABC(Au): Report boosts solar thermal hopes
  The prospects for a solar thermal power station at Port Augusta have been given a boost, with predictions of a significant drop in costs for the process. The CSIRO is predicting solar thermal energy costs will halve by 2020.
• 2013/02/10: NBF: Breakthrough for superefficient conversion of heat to electricity could boost coal plant efficiency to 54% from 30-45% and concentrated solar power to 40%
  

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2013/02/14: DD: Manager says safety issues are ignored at Hanford nuclear site - 'Congress needs to take a hard look at the situation here and determine whether we can go forward'
• 2013/02/14: BWeek: Nuclear Revival Dying in Europe as Power Prices Slump: Energy
• 2013/02/13: BBC: Ukraine: Chernobyl nuclear roof collapse 'no danger'
  A section of the roof at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant has collapsed - but there has been no increase in radiation at the site, authorities say. No-one was hurt when the roof over a turbine hall gave way under heavy snow. The "sarcophagus" used to seal off the failed reactor was unaffected, officials said, but around 80 construction workers were moved away.
• 2013/02/14: LA Times:B: San Onofre: Mitsubishi told to hand over nuclear plant report
• 2013/02/14: NPR: Taxpayers Steaming Over Florida [Crystal River] Nuclear Plant's Shuttering
• 2013/02/13: RT: Chernobyl nuclear plant roof collapse, no radiation leak
• 2013/02/12: PSinclair: Georgia Nuke Becoming Boondoggle Poster Child
  

  Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

• 2013/02/15: CNN: Tank storing radioactive waste leaking in [Hanford] Washington
  Leak is in the range of 150 to 300 gallons per year - It poses no immediate risk to public health, says the state governor - Hanford site once played a major part in U.S. plutonium production
• 2013/02/15: ABC(US): Hanford Nuclear Tank in Wash. Is Leaking Liquids
  Tank at Hanford nuclear storage site in Wash. is leaking but higher radiation not detected
• 2013/02/15: EneNews: INES Level 1 Nuclear Event -- Pump incident at Belgian plant
  

  Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:

• 2013/02/14: NBF: George Miley 10 kw LENR nanoparticle cold fusion proposal did well in voting for ARPA-E Ultralight future energy project funding
  

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

• 2013/02/14: UCSUSA:B: The Local Energy Movement: Coming to a Town Near You
  

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2013/02/15: Ph&Ph: Breaking Time-Reversal Symmetry Reduces Thermodynamic Efficiency
• 2013/02/12: ERabett: Dead Ball Game
• 2013/01/25: Forbes: Los Angeles Saves Millions With LED Street Light Deployment
  

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

• 2013/02/13: AutoBG: Consumer Reports kinda, sorta likes the electric-powered Fiat 500e
• 2013/02/11: TreeHugger: 2013 Ford Focus Electric gets 5-star safety rating from NHTSA
  

  As for Energy Storage:

• 2013/02/16: BBC: Airbus A350 to avoid Boeing 787-style lithium-ion batteries
• 2013/02/12: CSM: Model S battery problems? Tesla and the Times trade jabs
• 2013/02/12: Eureka: Cheap, strong lithium-ion battery developed at USC
  New design uses silicon nanoparticles to improve capacity and recharge more quickly
• 2013/02/12: NBF: Controversial EEStor Re-emerges reports Pilot Plant Production of its 73.9 Watt hour per liter Ultracapacitor Material
  

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2013/02/16: DD: Australia flood coverage rises to unaffordable levels - 'Most people can't afford insurance. It's beyond anybody's pocket.'
  

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

• 2013/02/15: TP:JR: February 15 News...
• 2013/02/14: TP:JR: February 14 News...
• 2013/02/13: TP:JR: February 13 News...
• 2013/02/12: TP:JR: February 12 News...
• 2013/02/11: TP:JR: February 11 News...
  

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2013/02/16: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #7 by John Hartz
• 2013/02/11: BPA: Tom Vilsack is a far cry from Dacian Ciolos,. Plus, More Agriculture News This Week
  

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2013/02/13: HotWhopper: What makes fake skeptics tell such Whoppers?
• 2013/02/13: BBickmore: The Monckton Files: Bickmore's First and Second Laws of Monckton
• 2013/02/13: JQuiggin: Crusader Monckton
• 2013/02/14: DeSmogBlog: Climate Science Denier Lord Monckton Joins Creationist Pastor To Launch Extremist Political Party
• 2013/02/15: HotWhopper: Downside of the Conservative Brain -- Ends and Means - Is Morality Dependent upon World View?
• 2013/02/15: RTCC: Reasoning with climate change deniers "pointless" [says author Will Storr]
  Debating climate change with steadfast contrarians is pointless, because their underlying beliefs are based less on scientific data and more on their life experiences.
• 2013/02/16: CCurrents: UK Rightwing Wealthy Secretly Fund Climate Crisis Denial
• 2013/02/15: CCP: John Abraham: "Luke-warming?" The world's scientists know better
• 2013/02/15: Denialism: Denialism From Forbes Courtesy of Heartland Hack James Taylor
• 2013/02/15: LoE: There is nothing abstract about climate change denial
• 2013/02/14: CSW: James Taylor misinterprets study by 180 degrees
• 2013/02/16: ERabett: RTFR Pops
• 2013/02/16: P3: Book on Enemies of Science [Storr]
• 2013/02/13: Tamino: Some people can't be reasoned with
• 2013/02/12: HotWhopper: Another scientist banned from HotCopper
• 2013/02/12: WtD: Even Andrew Bolt has had enough of Monckton: yes Andrew, climate sceptics are cranks
• 2013/02/11: Stoat: The strange case of the denialists inability to read
• 2013/02/10: Grist: Can USDA's climate reality message take root with denialist farmers?
• 2013/02/10: NakedCapitalism: Koch Brothers Driving Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada to Cut Out Venezuelan Oil
  

  This week in intimidation:

• 2013/02/14: BCLSB: Can Anti-Wind Activists Reign Of Terror be Stopped?
• 2013/02/12: BCLSB: More Threats From The Anti-Wind Camp
  

  The Donors Trust, funders of the fossil fuel climate change denial PR campaign, were revealed this week:

• DeSmogBlog: Who is Donors Trust?
• SourceWatch: Donors Capital Fund
• 2013/02/15: CCurrents: Billionaires Secretly Fund Rightist Climate Crisis Deniers
• 2013/02/15: P3: Heartland is the Tip of the Donors' Trust Iceberg
• 2013/02/15: DD: Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks - Anonymous trusts funded media campaign against windfarms, solar projects, and planning for sea-level rise
• 2013/02/15: Guardian(UK): Media campaign against windfarms funded by anonymous conservatives
  Secretive funding network channelled millions to stop state governments moving towards renewable energy
• 2013/02/15: Guardian(UK): Secret funding of climate sceptics is not restricted to the US
  In the UK, wealthy rightwing donors also finance campaigns against policies to reduce greenhouse gases
• 2013/02/14: DeSmogBlog: Startling Graph Shows Donors Trust the New 'Dark Money' in Climate Denial Funding
• 2013/02/14: Grist: Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial think tanks
• 2013/02/14: Guardian(UK): Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks
  Anonymous billionaires donated $120m to more than 100 anti-climate groups working to discredit climate change science
• 2013/02/14: CCP: What is Donors Trust and who runs it?
• 2013/02/14: Guardian(UK): How Donors Trust distributed millions to anti-climate groups
  The secretive funding network distributed $118m to 102 groups including some of the best-known thinktanks on the right
• 
  

  As for climate miscellanea:

   

• 2013/02/15: DeSmogBlog: The Resurgence of an Evolving Climate Movement, Part 1
• 2013/02/15: GreenGrok: Climate Change Chatter, 4th Edition [quotes]
• 2013/02/14: ArcticNews: Abrupt climate change and your delegation of responsibility
• 2013/02/14: DerSpiegel: Booming Scrap Business: Ship-Breaking Lessons from the Exxon Valdez
  The infamous oil tanker Exxon Valdez is almost completely gone, most of it having already been recycled in India's voracious steel mills. But its dismantling on a beach in India has once again highlighted the dangers, both environmental and physical, associated with the booming ship-breaking industry.
• 2013/02/15: ERabett: Solar Power, Electric Autos and Churnalism
• 2013/02/16: TheCanadian: Bearing Witness: From Vesuvius to Climate Change
• 2013/02/12: ERabett: Return to Normal Science
• 2013/02/10: TP:JR: Global Ponzi Scheme Revisited: How Climate Inaction Betrays Our Children And Future Generations
  

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

• DeSmogBlog: Who is Donors Trust?
• SourceWatch: Donors Capital Fund
• Wiki: Cover crop
• Wiki: Marine Isotope Stages
• Icy Seas - Scientific Musings of a Sailor in a Changing Climate
• EIA:TiE: Daily wholesale and retail prices for various energy products
• Wiki: INES - International Nuclear Event Scale
• United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation 2013 and World Water Day [March 22]
• 2013//: UNWater: [InfoGraphic] Water Cooperation or Competition?
• Retraction Watch
• Wiki: Carnot's theorem (thermodynamics)
• Wiki: Carnot cycle

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.

A Simple Plea

Webmasters, web coders and content providers have mercy on your low bandwidth brethren. Because I am on dial-up, I am a text surfer -- no images, no javascript and no flash. When you post a graphic, will you please use the alt text field ... and when you embed a youtube/vimeo/flash video, please add some minimal description. Thank you.

<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.

"...narrow tribalism remains today in the form of religious bigotry and fanatical nationalism. We urgently need a global ethic, which will unite all humans." -John Scales Avery

• Global Warming Links
• Global Warming News Archive
• Energy
• Energy News
• Environmental Issues
• ---
• H.E. Taylor (homepage)