Another Week of GW News, March 3, 2012

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup

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Another Week of Climate Instability News

Sipping from the Internet Firehose...

March 3, 2013

• Chuckles, Sensawunda, COP19+, CITES, Petoukhov, Vaks
• Bottom Line, Subsidies, Thermodynamics, Cook
• Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
• Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Fisheries, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather
• GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, Tipping Points
• Ocean Currents, Extinctions, Bees & CCD, Anthropocene, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wildfires
• Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Geoengineering, Conservation
• Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Models, Free Science, Diamond
• International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Bank Tax, Hormuz
• South China Sea, Airline GHGs, Solar Spats, Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz
• National Politics: Britain, Europe, Australia, CSG, Election, MDBP, India, China
• Canada, Muzzling Scientists, McDougall, Can-USA, Liberals, Salmon
• BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Sask, Manitoba, Ontario, Canadiana
• America, BP Disaster, Keystone, Birth Control, Coal Exports
• Gridlock, RES, BPC, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts, BP Trial
• Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Oil & the Economy, Energy Independence, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Fusion, Hydrogen, Grid, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage
• Insurance, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig

 

Here's a wee chuckle for ya:

• 2013/02/27: XKCD: (cartoon - Munro) ISO 8601
• 2013/02/25: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) The Dead Canary
• 2013/02/25: uComics: (cartoon - Trudeau) Denial At myFacts
  

  Here's one for your sense of wonder:

• 2013/02/27: APOD: Asperatus Clouds Over New Zealand
  

  Looking ahead to COP19 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2013/02/27: RTCC: Ethiopia suggests 'means testing' international climate efforts [COP19+]
  Ethiopia has suggested means testing national obligations in the UN climate process by analysing GDP and emissions output every five years. In what could prove a controversial submission to the UN climate agency, the UNFCCC, it proposes reclassifying nations from rich to poor and vice versa.
• 2013/02/25: CCurrents: Climate Crisis: Who's Responsible?
  

  The CITES - COP16 is going down in Bangkok:

• CITES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
• 2013/03/03: al Jazeera: Illegal wildlife trade discussed in Bangkok
  Illegal trade of ivory, rhino horn and shark fins top agenda at CITES convention as poaching reaches critical levels.
• 2013/03/02: ABC(Au): UN calls for urgent action to save endangered species
• 2013/03/02: SciAm:Obs: Ban Elephant Ivory, Legalize Rhino Horn?
  The fate of elephants, rhinoceroses and other imperiled species could be decided in the coming days at a major meeting on wildlife trade regulation in Bangkok. Beginning March 3, delegates from the 177 countries that have signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, dubbed CITES, will gather to consider proposals to increase or decrease protection not only for iconic mammals but also for such organisms as sharks, turtles and timber species.
• 2013/03/02: BBC: CITES meeting to deal with species 'extinction crisis'
  New plans to protect elephants, rhinos and other species will be discussed at a critical meeting that begins in Bangkok on Sunday.
• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Sell rhino horn to save species: researchers
  An Australian-led group of international researchers is proposing selling white rhinoceros horn to save the species from extinction. The researchers say a huge increase in poaching shows that a ban on the trade has failed and a regulated harvest is the only remaining option. The South African Government is considering the idea. It'll be discussed at [CITES] an international convention on the trade of wildlife this weekend.
• 
  

  The Petoukhov et al. paper on planetary waves and recent weather extremes caused a bit of a stir:

   

• 2013/03/01: PNAS: (abs) Quasiresonant amplification of planetary waves and recent Northern Hemisphere weather extremes by Vladimir Petoukhov et al.
• 2013/02/25: PIK: Weather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphere
• 2013/02/27: CCurrents: Global Warming May Have Caused Heatwaves Killing Thousands Of People
• 2013/02/27: DD: Global warming and airflow changes 'caused U.S. and E.U. heatwaves'...
• 2013/02/27: TP:JR: Weather Extremes Provoked By Trapping Of Giant Waves In The Atmosphere, Likely Boosted By Global Warming
• 2013/02/27: RTCC: Climate change and extreme weather linked in new research
• 2013/02/26: P3: Science: Climate Change Linked to Large Scale Severe Events
• 2013/02/26: Guardian(UK): Global warming and airflow changes 'caused US and EU heatwaves'
• 2013/02/26: CCP: Weather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphere
• 2013/02/25: Reuters: Global warming may cause extremes by slowing "planetary waves"
  Global warming may have caused extreme events such as a 2011 drought in the United States and a 2003 heatwave in Europe by slowing vast, wave-like weather flows in the northern hemisphere, scientists said on Tuesday.
• 2013/02/25: CSM: Scientists link extreme weather to giant atmospheric waves
  

  There is still some talk about that Vaks et al. paper on permafrost melting:

• 2013/02/27: ERW: 1.5C rise in temperature enough to start permafrost melt, scientists warn
• 2013/02/26: TP:JR: Permamelt: 500,000-Year History of Permafrost Reveals Further Warming of 1.5°C Would 'Thaw Significant Regions'
• 2013/02/25: P3: Melting permafrost
• 2013/02/25: SciNews: Moderate climate warming could melt permafrost -- Ancient cave formations in Siberia reveal effects of warmer past on frozen ground
  

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2013/02/26: DD: Investors demand climate-risk disclosure in 2013 proxies - 'We're now beginning to see renewed interest in the actual financial risks from climate change'
  

  Who always gets the subsidies, tax exemptions, loan guarantees & grants and why?

• 2013/03/01: TP:JR: Happy 100th Birthday, Big Oil Tax Breaks
• 2013/02/27: TreeHugger: The Energy Game is Rigged: Fossil Fuel Subsidies Topped $620 Billion in 2011 by Lester Brown
• 2013/02/27: Grist: Can we afford to give a $40 billion gift to oil companies?
• 2013/02/27: ATM: The latest "golden fleece" award for a corporate subsidy: just another way to "rig the game for 'the haves'" [SMRs]
  

  Delving into the laws of thermodynamics this week:

• 2013/03/03: TSoD: Wonderland and Radiative Forcing - Part Two
• 2013/03/02: C&S: Does Thermal Radiation Travel From Cool To Hot Bodies
  

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2013/03/02: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #9 by John Hartz
• 2013/03/02: SkS: 2013 SkS News Bulletin #2: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline by John Hartz
• 2013/03/01: SkS: Why SkS withdrew from the Bloggies
• 2013/03/01: SkS: Living in Denial in Canada by Andy Skuce
• 2013/03/01: SkS: Reality Drop - using social media to rapidly respond to climate misinformation
• 2013/02/28: SkS: Living in Denial in Norway by Andy Skuce
• 2013/02/27: SkS: George Will - Still Recycling Classic Climate Change Myths for The Washington Post by dana1981
• 2013/02/26: SkS: Conspiracy Theorists Respond to Evidence They're Conspiracy Theorists With More Conspiracy Theories
• 2013/02/26: SkS: How big is the "carbon fertilization effect"? by gws
• 2013/02/25: SkS: Did Murdoch's The Australian Misrepresent IPCC Chair Pachauri on Global Warming? by dana1981
• 2013/02/24: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly Digest #8 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:

   

• 2013/02/28: WHO: [link to 2.7 meg pdf] Health risk assessment from the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, based on a preliminary dose estimation
• 2013/02/27: BGD: The impact of oceanic circulation and phase transfer on the dispersion of radionuclides released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant by Y. Choi et al.
• 2013/02/26: BGD: Continuing Cs137 release to the sea from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant through 2012 by J. Kanda
• 2013/03/02: Asahi: Declining radiation measured near Fukushima plant, some blown elsewhere
• 2013/03/01: Asahi: Crooked Cleanup: Workers break silence to allege boss ordered corner-cutting
• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Japan cancer risks rise
  The World Health Organisation has released a report saying the risk of thyroid cancer in those living within a 20km radius of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has risen.
• 2013/02/28: al Jazeera: 'Higher cancer risks' after Fukushima crisis
  WHO says people in areas contaminated by leaked radioactive material face higher risks over their lifetime.
• 2013/02/28: Asahi: Nuclear watchdog: No easy task to scrap Fukushima reactors safely
• 2013/02/28: EneNews: Fukushima cancer headlines appear all over mainstream media
• 2013/02/28: BBC: Fukushima: 'Small increased cancer risk'
  People living near the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have an increased risk of developing some cancers, the World Health Organization says.
• 2013/02/28: EneNews: NHK: Highest radiation levels ever detected in fish at Fukushima plant - Over 5,000 times gov't limit
• 2013/02/28: EneNews: Top UK Newspaper Headline: Fukushima cancer risk 'played down to aid nuclear industry'
• 2013/02/28: CBC: Japan nuclear disaster poses 'small' cancer risk
  WHO report says risk from Fukushima disaster so small it probably won't be detectable
• 2013/02/28: UN: Overall cancer risks low in Japan after Fukushima nuclear incident - UN report
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): 'Cancer risks higher' in worst-hit Fukushima area
• 2013/02/28: ScienceInsider: WHO Sees Minimal Cancer Risks From Fukushima Accident
• 2013/02/28: NatureN: Much of Fukushima's fallout was gone with the wind
  Cancer risks from nuclear disaster concentrated in a few radiation hotspots. The World Health Organization this morning released a relatively reassuring report...
• 2013/02/27: DeutscheWelle: Rising doubts about Japan's official radiation figures
• 2013/02/27: EneNews: AP: Flurry of films on Fukushima disaster - Shows authorities playing down health risks, not telling whole truth
• 2013/02/25: EneNews: Caldicott: Fukushima disaster the worst thing that's ever happened - I've never seen anything so despicable in decades of being a doctor (audio)
• 2013/02/25: EneNews: Scientist: "The melted core cracked the containment vessel, there really is no containment" at Fukushima reactors (video)
• 2013/02/24: Guardian(UK): After Fukushima: families on the edge of meltdown
  Two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a new phenomenon is on the rise: atomic divorce. Abigail Haworth reports on the unbearable pressures and prejudices being faced by those caught in the radiation zone
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/03/01: BBerg: Lobbying Flurry Precedes U.S. Vote on Fukushima Rules
• 2013/02/28: Grist: Japan is going nuclear again, Fukushima be damned
• 2013/02/26: NYT: Post-Fukushima, Arguments for Nuclear Safety Bog Down
• 2013/02/24: Asahi: Survey: No nuclear plants meet new safety standards
  None of Japan's 16 nuclear power plants has satisfied the government's proposed new safety standards, making them ineligible to be restarted in the near future, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey.
• 
  

  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

   

• 2013/03/03: Dosbat: The Beaufort Break Up of February 2013
• 2013/03/02: GLaden: Arctic Sea Ice: A System In Collapse
• 2013/02/27: Guardian(UK): Sunderland student plots the Arctic's melting ice
• 2013/02/27: GLaden: Arctic Ice Loss
• 2013/02/25: CD: Melting of the Arctic sea ice
• 2013/02/24: Dosbat: The Beaufort Sea Ice Lead of February 2013
  

  As for the charismatic megafauna:

• 2013/03/02: CCP: Appeals court ruling determines polar bears will retain 'threatened' listing
  

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2013/03/01: ASI: Permafrost, the tipping time bomb
• 2013/02/26: CoveredInBees: If we're going to be this stupid, let's do it intelligently
  

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2013/03/01: BCLSB: Feds Ask: How Do We Extract Resources From A Melting Arctic?
• 2013/02/28: TP:JR: As Arctic Sea Ice Recedes, NOAA Must Chart All New Water Routes
• 2013/02/28: LoE: Shell abandons Arctic drilling this year -- Greenpeace
• 2013/02/27: CNN: Shell halts Arctic drill plans for 2013
• 2013/02/27: Grist: Shell to 'pause' Arctic drilling in 2013
• 2013/02/27: CCentral: NOAA to Map Alaska's Increasingly Ice-Free Arctic Waters
• 2013/02/27: BBC: Shell suspends Arctic drilling for 2013
• 2013/02/27: CBC: Shell says it will 'pause' drilling in Arctic Ocean for 2013
• 2013/02/27: Guardian(UK): Shell to suspend Arctic offshore drilling program over safety fears
• 2013/02/26: NOAANews: NOAA's Coast Survey plans for new Arctic nautical charts -- Less sea ice and more ship traffic means new charts needed for safety
  

  While in Antarctica:

• 2013/03/01: IOTD: Antarctic Ice North of the Weddell Sea
  

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2013/03/01: UN: South Sudan's cereal production up but not enough for all farmers, UN reports
• 2013/02/28: BBC: [Schmallenberg] Livestock virus found on 1,500 farms
  A virus that causes stillbirths and birth defects in lambs and calves has spread to more than 1,500 UK farms, new government figures show.
• 2013/02/26: BPA: Texas and Montana Lost 3.7 Million Acres of "Land in Farms" Last Year
  

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

• 2013/02/28: FAO: International guidelines take aim at illegal fishing (IUU) -- Focus placed on responsibilities of flag states
• 2013/02/28: TheConversation: Counting the tuna in the Pacific
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): Interpol moves to halt illegal fishing in Pacific
  International criminal police organisation Interpol has held its first ever meeting to address illegal fishing, in a bid to curtail the multi-billion dollar black market. The organisation's Environmental Crime Program established an illegal fishing unit to help countries deal with fish piracy and to monitor and disrupt criminal activities.
• 2013/02/27: EurActiv: EU ministers reject full ban on fish discards
  European Union fisheries ministers agreed on Wednesday (27 February) to reduce the wasteful practice of discards - throwing unwanted fish back into the sea, usually dead or dying - but stopped short of a full ban.
• 2013/02/26: Resilience: Saving the oysters
• 2013/02/25: NatureNB: INTERPOL establishes unit to fight illegal fishing
• 2013/02/26: NOAANews: NOAA-funded research investigates where Caribbean fish gather and spawn -- May lead to better protection for depleted species
• 2013/02/26: BBC: Fish discards ban 'may be diluted'
  Europe's fisheries ministers may dilute plans for a total ban on the practice of discarding fish at sea, as they meet in Brussels. An outright discards ban was widely welcomed when backed by the European Parliament last month, but it is being resisted by France, Spain and others.
• 
  

  So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

   

• 2013/02/25: Guardian(UK): Indian land grabs in Ethiopia show dark side of south-south co-operation
  

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2013/02/28: ScienceInsider: Switzerland Creates Secure Test Site for GM Crops
• 2013/02/25: MLynas: Golden promise: How 'biofortification' could soon be saving hundreds of thousands of lives
• 2013/02/26: TRN: Mexican Farmers Protest the Entrance of GMO Corn
• 2013/02/: Oyez: Bowman v. Monsanto
  

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

• 2013/03/01: BPA: Smart, Innovative Farmers in the Dakotas
  Even as farm commodity prices have been strong, the input costs for industrial farming methods have been increasing. Given a fall in commodity prices, these inputs might not be recovered and these days we're talking real money to plant a crop. Then, there is that pesky problem of Roundup resistant weeds so that additional labor or chemical expense is required anyway, on top of the high input costs already paid up front.
  Where is this headed? I don't know, but it just might be the way these smart farmers in the Dakotas are approaching farming.
• 2013/03/01: Guardian(UK): Bangladesh tackles climate change by fusing rice paddies with fish farms
• 2013/02/28: Resilience: The sanctity of food: Conscious eating as a spiritual practice
• 2013/02/28: WFP: WFP To Receive Large Wheat Donation From Government Of Pakistan
• 2013/02/27: ABC(Au): Salt-tolerant crop clues in grass evolution
• 2013/02/27: al Jazeera: Pasture cropping: A regenerative solution from Down Under
  Overgrazing, tilling and the introduction of exotic animals devastated Australia's soil and indigenous wildlife.
• 2013/02/27: DemNow: Behind the Brands: On Food Justice, Oxfam Gives Coca Cola, Kellogg's, Nestle & Pepsi Failing Grades
• 2013/02/26: WFP: WFP Buys Record Quantity Of Maize From Ethiopian Cooperative Unions
• 2013/02/26: UN: Ethiopian farming co-ops begin record food delivery for national relief efforts
• 2013/02/24: NakedCapitalism: "One Seed Revolution (English)"
• 2013/02/23: Guardian(UK): India's rice revolution: Chinese scientist questions massive harvests
  

  It has been relatively quiet since Rusty zapped Western Australia:

• 2013/03/02: MODIS: Tropical Cyclone Rusty (17S) over Western Australia [on Feb 26th]
• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Life returning to normal after Rusty
  Port Hedland residents are adjusting back to normal life after ex-Tropical Cyclone Rusty kept them in lockdown for about 35 hours. Rusty has been downgraded to a low but is still expected to bring potentially strong winds and heavy rain to some east Pilbara communities as it tracks towards the Goldfields. The storm hit the Pilbara coast as a category three system on Wednesday, causing havoc at Pardoo Station.
• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Clean-up begins after Tropical Cyclone Rusty [in the Pilbara]
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): Rusty spares Port Hedland, heads inland
• 2013/02/27: al Jazeera: Australia cyclone upgraded as winds hit coast
  Cyclone Rusty upgraded to category four, as country's mining belt braces for more rains and destructive winds.
• 2013/02/27: ABC(Au): Pilbara remains on alert as Rusty moves inland
• 2013/02/27: Wunderground: Category 1 Rusty hits Australia; Chicago gets its biggest snow of the winter
• 2013/02/27: ABC(Au): Residents seek shelter as [Cat 4] Rusty gathers strength
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Hundreds seek shelter ahead of [Cat 3] Cyclone Rusty
  Hundreds of people in Western Australia's Pilbara have taken shelter in evacuation centres as Cyclone Rusty continues on its path towards the coast. Port Hedland has already recorded wind gusts of up to 120 kilometres-per-hour, with the cyclone expected to make landfall on Wednesday evening.
• 2013/02/26: BBC: Australia's north-west coast is being buffeted by high winds, hours before a powerful cyclone is expected to make landfall as a category four storm
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Slow-moving cylone [Rusty] forces hundreds to evacuate in Pilbara
• 2013/02/26: Eureka: NASA satellites see slow-moving Cyclone Rusty before landfall
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Cyclone Rusty gathers strength off Pilbara coast
• 2013/02/26: WtD: Image of the day: Cyclone Rusty hitting WA
• 2013/02/26: Wunderground: Category 1 Rusty drenching Australia; major winter storm hits Midwest U.S.
• 2013/02/25: NASA: NASA Sees Cyclone Rusty Threatening Western Australia
• 2013/02/25: Wunderground: Category 1 Rusty Australia's strongest tropical cyclone of 2013
  

  Further west in the South Indian, Haruna faded:

• 2013/02/25: NASA: Infrared NASA Data Shows Cyclone Haruna Being Blown Away
  

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2013/02/25: NASA: NASA Spots Active Southern Indian Ocean's Tropical Storm 18S
  

  This week in notable weather:

• 2013/03/03: ABC(Au): Fatal snow storms sweep northern Japan
  At least six people died in a spate of snow-related incidents as blizzards swept across the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido over the weekend.
• 2013/02/26: CSM: Blizzard buries Kansas snowfall records
• 2013/02/26: DerSpiegel: Overly Overcast: Germany Weathers Darkest Winter in 43 Years
  The days may be getting longer, but there's still not a hint of springtime sunshine in Germany. Weather data shows that this winter has been the gloomiest in 43 years. If the sun doesn't start shining soon, it will be the darkest winter on record.
• 2013/02/26: CBC: U.S. storm cuts power to thousands, causes 3 deaths -- Heavy snow, hurricane-force winds make driving conditions treacherous
• 2013/02/26: CSM: Snowstorm closes Kansas City airport, cuts power to 40,000
• 2013/02/26: al Jazeera: Afghanistan braces for severe weather
  A winter storm brings deep snow and heavy rain to parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• 2013/02/25: CBC: Another blizzard slams U.S. Plains region -- 2nd storm in less than a week hits Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas
• 2013/02/25: CNN: 'Truly a historic blizzard,' weather service says
  17 inches of snow, 75 mph winds in Amarillo - National Guard troops are called to help stranded drivers in Texas - Whiteout conditions force plows from Texas highways - The blizzard is the second to slam region in a week
• 
  

  This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

   

• 2013/03/01: TheConversation: Floods, fires and lots of heat: summing up summer 2012-13
  

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

• 2013/02/25: CCurrents: More Snow, Less Snow: The Climate Crisis "Puzzle"
  

  As for GHGs:

• 2013/02/25: WtD: 400ppm is looking very likely this year: good reason to be concerned
• 2013/02/25: HillTimes: [Canadian] Feds using 'smoke and mirrors' to report GHG reductions, say opposition MPs
  The government says it's 'halfway' to meeting its Copenhagen Accord GHG reductions targets, but NDP MP Megan Leslie says the Conservatives are using 'creative accounting.'
  [...]
  The report stated Canada was "halfway" to reaching its target. But figures and forecasts contained in the report, and confirmed for The Hill Times by Environment Canada, show Canada is actually on track to produce 720 million tonnes of emissions by 2020...
  [...]
  Ambiguous wording in Mr. Kent's update, which Environment Canada later clarified for The Hill Times, actually meant the government was citing a halfway point between an estimate of what greenhouse gas emissions would have been had Canada taken no action at all -- 850 million tonnes of emissions in 2020 and the Copenhagen Accord goal of 607 million tonnes.
• 
  

  And the temperature record:

   

• 2013/03/01: TheConversation: Hot summer? Yes: the hottest
• 2013/03/01: Wunderground: Australia has its warmest summer on record
• 2013/03/01: Eureka: Volcanic aerosols, not pollutants, tamped down recent Earth warming, says CU-Boulder study
• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Australia breaks hottest summer record
  The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that Australia has just experienced its hottest summer on record. The bureau says the previous hottest summer - measured by average day and night figures from across the nation - was in 1997-98.
• 2013/03/01: Guardian(UK): Australia's record-breaking hottest summer
• 2013/02/26: Moyhu: January 2013 GISS up 0.17°C
• 2013/02/26: TheConversation: Fact check: has global warming paused?
  

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2013/03/03: MODIS: Saharan dust over the Mediterranean and Red Seas
• 2013/02/28: Scripps: Saharan and Asian Dust, Biological Particles End Global Journey in California
  UCSD, NOAA study is the first to show that dust and other aerosols from one side of the world influence rainfall in another
• 
  

  While in the paleoclimate:

   

• 2013/02/28: CSM: Prehistoric warming linked to CO2
• 2013/02/28: SimpleC: Evidence rethink puts CO2 and ancient warming back in sync
• 2013/02/28: Eureka: LSU researchers find new information about 'Snowball Earth' period
  

  The cliff, aka tipping points, aka planetary boundaries, put in an appearance:

• 2013/02/28: TheConversation: Worrying about global tipping points distracts from real planetary threats [Barry Brook]
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): Ecologists reject 'doomsday-like' scenario [Barry Brook]
• 2013/02/28: 350Resource(UK): Arctic melt may be the first tipping point that triggers many more
  

  As for ocean currents:

• 2013/02/26: Guardian(UK): Elephant seals help scientists solve climate mystery
  The animals, fitted with head sensors, have helped to provide data from the Antarctic's most inaccessible depths
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): Scientists dive deep for climate clues
  The discovery of a new source of the ocean's coldest and deepest waters will help scientists better predict ocean circulation and its response to climate change. Up until now, scientists have known about three sources of Antarctic bottom water but a fourth stream has eluded them for 30 years. Biologist Mark Hindell says by using satellite trackers on elephant seals another source of the dense salty water has been found off the Amery Ice shelf. "They go to these places in the middle of winter where we can't get ships in," he said.
• 2013/02/24: NatureN: Tagged seals help find missing piece in global climate puzzle
  Researchers pinpoint fourth known source of bottom water, a crucial oceanic heat-sink
• 
  

  What's new on the extinction front?

   

• 2013/03/01: SciNow: The Great Shark Massacre [97 million to 273 million in 2010]
• 2013/03/01: SciAm:EC: What Happens When Forest Elephants Are Wiped Out in an Ecosystem?
• 2013/03/01: CSM: Humans kill nearly 100 million sharks each year, say conservationists
• 2013/03/01: GreenGrok: Animals Make a Difference
• 2013/03/01: BBC: Shark kills number 100 million annually, research says
• 2013/02/28: BBC: Rhino horn - time to legalise the trade say researchers
• 2013/02/28: Eureka: Scientists call for legal trade in rhino horn
  Four leading environmental scientists today urged the international community to install a legal trade in rhino horn -- in a last ditch effort to save the imperilled animals from extinction. In an article in the leading international journal Science the scientists argued that a global ban on rhino products has failed, and death rates among the world's remaining black and white rhinos are soaring due to illegal poaching to supply insatiable international demand.
• 2013/02/28: Eureka: Reducing numbers of 1 carnivore species indirectly leads to extinction of others
  A team from the University of Exeter and the University of Bern has found that reducing the numbers of 1 species of carnivore can lead to the extinction of others
• 2013/02/28: Eureka: Elephants are vanishing from DRC's best-run reserve
• 2013/02/28: TheConversation: Australian endangered species: Tasmanian Torrent Midge
• 2013/02/27: NatureN: Tusk tracking will tackle illegal trade -- Forensic testing of seized ivory could track down poachers
• 2013/02/26: SciAm:EC: Tragedy in New Zealand: Dozens of Critically Endangered Birds Dead, Cause Unknown
• 2013/02/26: Eureka: New study shows continued decline in the last remaining stronghold for leatherback sea turtles
  

  The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant worry:

• 2013/03/01: SciNews: Native pollinators boost crop yields worldwide
  Farmers may not get the most out of their crops if they rely solely on honeybees
• 2013/03/01: CBC: Wild bees boost harvest more than honeybees -- Leaving some natural habitat undisturbed could improve crop yields
• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Wild pollinators 'key' to feeding the world
• 2013/03/01: Eureka: Wild pollinators increase crop fruit set regardless of honey bees
• 2013/03/01: Eureka: Illinois town provides a historical foundation for today's bee research
• 2013/03/01: CCurrents: Loss Of Wild Insects Hurts Crop Yield
• 2013/02/28: Eureka: Old records, new bees result in 'Science' paper for MSU ecologist
• 2013/02/28: Science: (ab$) Wild Pollinators Enhance Fruit Set of Crops Regardless of Honey Bee Abundance by Lucas A. Garibaldi et al.
• 2013/02/28: CSM: Plight of the bumblebee: Disappearance?
  It's not just honey bees that are in trouble. The fuzzy American bumblebee seems to be disappearing in the Midwest.
• 
  

  Oh look! The Anthropocene came up again:

   

• 2013/02/26: JFleck: Anthropocene diaries: a fish story I wrote elsewhere
  

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2013/02/28: NASA: NOAA and NASA's Next Generation Weather Satellite May Provide Earlier Warnings
  

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2013/02/25: NOAANews: New NOAA study estimates future loss of labor capacity as climate warms
• 2013/02/25: Guardian(UK): Hotter, wetter climate slashes labour capacity by 10%, study shows
• 2013/02/25: Grist: It's too hot and muggy to work this century
• 2013/02/25: RTCC: New York could be as hot as Bahrain by 2200
  

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2013/03/01: BBC: EU introduces illegal timber import controls
• 2013/03/01: ERW: Environmental factors drive moves that lead to deforestation
  Land scarcity and soil degradation drive people to migrate to the forest frontier of northern Guatemala and cause deforestation.
• 2013/02/28: BBC: "Size of Wales" Charity reaches rainforest goal
  A charity founded to save tropical rainforest the size of Wales has achieved its goal. It has raised £2m in three years to protect over two million hectares of forest, mainly in Africa.
• 2013/02/26: PSinclair: NASA: Forest Canopy in Eastern US Impacted by Warming
• 2013/02/25: SciNews: Nutrients matter in tropical forests -- Soil phosphorus levels drive tree species' different growth patterns
• 2013/02/24: TheCanadian: Wild Forests
  

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2013/02/26: TP:JR: Climate Change, Migration and Conflict in the Amazon and the Andes
  

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Crews battle to control bushfire near Perth
• 2013/02/27: MODIS: Burn scars in Tasmania (false color)
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Fire season turns around after heavy rain [Victoria]
• 2013/02/26: JFleck: In the eastern Mediterranean, tree rings tell of a shift toward stand-replacing fire?
  

  Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:

• 2013/02/27: RTCC: Coral bleaching could hit 74% of world's reefs by 2045
• 2013/02/26: DD: Global warming study maps coral reef vulnerability - Reducing carbon emissions would delay annual bleaching events by more than two decades in 23 percent of the world's reefs
• 2013/02/25: Eureka: Scientists create new maps depicting potential worldwide coral bleaching by 2056
  

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2013/03/01: WHOI: New Study Reveals How Sensitive U.S. East Coast Regions May Be to Ocean Acidification
  

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2013/02/28: FaGP: Saskatchewan Glacier Retreat, Alberta
• 2013/02/26: FaGP: Greenland Ice Sheet Index
• 2013/02/25: RTCC: Black carbon blamed for 30% of Nepal glacier melt
  

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2013/02/26: Peter Gleick: (Mis)Understanding Sea-Level Rise (SLR) and Climate Impacts
• 2013/02/25: DD: Boston grapples with the threat of storms and rising water - 'This is something that we're worried about'
• 2013/02/25: DD: 'Canary in the coal mine': Living beyond the levees in Louisiana - 'Leeville is washing away' as sea level rises
  

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2013/03/03: ABC(Au): Flooding isolates parts of northern NSW
• 2013/03/02: ABC(Au): Downpour puts Qld's Darling Downs on flood alert
  Parts of the southern Queensland town of Dalby have been evacuated as floodwaters inundate homes. Emergency Services are on standby across much of central and southern Queensland where constant heavy rain is causing road chaos and flash flooding.
• 2013/03/02: al Jazeera: Recent storms bring a ray of light to the US
  As prospects on the ongoing drought situation look a little brighter
• 2013/03/02: ABC(Au): Forster cut off as rain lashes northern NSW
  The New South Wales north coast town of Forster has been cut off by floodwaters as heavy rain continues to lash the region. Flood-weary eyes are watching the weather as a slow-moving rain cell stalls over much of the northern coast.
• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Top End wet season a 'shocker'
  The Bureau of Meteorology says the Northern Territory is having its driest wet season in more than two decades. Senior forecaster Graeme King, says the last time the Top End had such little rainfall was the 1991-92 wet season. He says some parts of the Territory are having their driest wet season on record.
• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Man rescued from flood waters in Muswellbrook
  The State Emergency Service says a flood watch for the Hunter region has been downgraded and now only covers the Paterson and Williams River and the Wollombi Brook. More than 100 millimetres of rain has fallen across the Hunter in the past 24 hours with the SES called out to more than 120 jobs.
• 2013/03/01: DD: Hobbiton set to shrivel in Waikato drought
• 2013/02/28: Wunderground: Late February storms put only a slight dent in U.S. drought
• 2013/02/28: Grist: Drought is taking a toll on the Texas beef industry
• 2013/02/27: ABC(Au): Flood disaster areas declared on NSW coast
  The NSW and Federal Governments have declared 11 regions in the state, affected by the weekend's storms and flooding, eligible for natural disaster assistance.
• 2013/02/27: Grist: Northern California sees driest winter on record
• 2013/02/27: al Jazeera: Torrential rain inundates Macedonia -- Flooding has been extensive in the north and east of the country
• 2013/02/25: TP:JR: Study: Climate Change May Dry Up Important U.S. Reservoirs Like Lake Powell And Lake Mead
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): SE Qld awash again after heavy rain
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): SE Qld facing more floods as rain persists
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): Man killed as car swept off flooded Qld road
  A Sunshine Coast man has died trying to cross a flooded road at Kilcoy, north of Brisbane, as heavy rain continues across south-east Queensland.
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): Significant flooding across the Hunter
  A major flood warning has been issued for the Wollombi Brook at Bulga where waters have continued rising overnight.
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/02/25: Stoat: CAFE Standards are Extremely Inefficient
• 2013/02/24: Eureka: UN sustainable energy initiative could put world on a path to climate targets
  

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2013/03/01: CalcRisk: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales increase to 15.4 million annual rate [SAAR] in February
• 2013/02/26: NBF: Hyper fuel efficient 150 Person electric aircraft doable without superconductors and just todays technology
  

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

• 2013/02/28: DerSpiegel: Modern Treehouses: A Vertical Forest in Milan
  A forest is being planted in central Milan, but it won't look like a typical wooded landscape. Architects in the Italian city have created "Vertical Forest" residential towers that aim to bring a bit of nature back to the concrete jungle.
• 
  

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

   

• 2013/03/02: TheConversation: Anyone can geoengineer: should we try to stop them?
• 2013/02/27: UK Govt: [link to 37k pdf] The [British] government's view on geoengineering research
• 2013/02/27: EIJ: The New Sorcerer's Apprentices by Clive Hamilton
• 2013/02/27: EIJ: We need some Symptomatic Relief by Ken Caldeira
• 2013/02/24: PS: Can NASA Stop Global Warming?
  

  What's new in conservation?

• 2013/02/27: Eureka: A game plan for climate change
  Pilot project helps scientists, managers, and conservationists pro-actively prepare for a changing climate
• 
  

  Meanwhile in the journals:

   

• 2013/02/26: PNAS: (abs) Integrating indigenous livelihood and lifestyle objectives in managing a natural resource by Éva Elizabeth Plagányi et al.
• 2013/02/26: PNAS: (abs) Surface exposure to sunlight stimulates CO2 release from permafrost soil carbon in the Arctic by Rose M. Cory et al.
• 2013/02/26: PNAS: (ab$) Fossil evidence for a hyperdiverse sclerophyll flora under a non-Mediterranean-type climate by J. M. Kale Sniderman et al.
• 2013/02/26: PNAS: (ab$) Probabilistic framework for assessing the ice sheet contribution to sea level change by Christopher M. Little et al.
• 2013/02/26: PNAS: (letter$) Surprising roles for bilins in a green alga by Jean-David Rochaix
• 2013/02/26: PNAS: (letter$) The kingdoms of Carl Woese by Larry Gold
• 2013/02/27: RSBL: (ab$) Repeated evolution of salt-tolerance in grasses by T. H. Bennett et al.
• 2013/02/26: ESD: Detecting hotspots of atmosphere-vegetation interaction via slowing down - Part 2: Application to a global climate model by S. Bathiany et al.
• 2013/02/26: ESD: Detecting hotspots of atmosphere-vegetation interaction via slowing down - Part 1: A stochastic approach by S. Bathiany et al.
• 2013/02/27: ESDD: Global modeling of withdrawal, allocation and consumptive use of surface water and groundwater resources by Y. Wada et al.
• 2013/02/27: ACP: Analysis of global methane changes after the 1991 Pinatubo volcanic eruption by N. Bândae et al.
• 2013/02/26: ACP: Classification and investigation of Asian aerosol absorptive properties by T. Logan et al.
• 2013/02/25: ACP: Mineral dust variability in central West Antarctica associated with ozone depletion by M. Cataldo et al.
• 2013/02/27: ACPD: Effect of land cover on atmospheric processes and air quality over the continental United States - a NASA unified WRF (NU-WRF) model study by Z. Tao et al.
• 2013/02/27: ACPD: Possible effect of extreme solar energetic particle events of September-October 1989 on polar stratospheric aerosols: a case study by I. A. Mironova & I. G. Usoskin
• 2013/02/28: Cell:TE&E: [Opinion] Does the terrestrial biosphere have planetary tipping points? by Barry W. Brook et al.
• 2013/03/01: PNAS: (abs) Quasiresonant amplification of planetary waves and recent Northern Hemisphere weather extremes by Vladimir Petoukhov et al.
• 2013/03/01: BG: A C13 labelling study on carbon fluxes in Arctic plankton communities under elevated CO2 levels by A. de Kluijver et al.
• 2013/03/01: BG: CO2 increases C14 primary production in an Arctic plankton community by A. Engel et al.
• 2013/03/01: BG: The Little Ice Age: evidence from a sediment record in Gullmar Fjord, Swedish west coast by I. Polovodova Asteman et al.
• 2013/02/26: BG: Comparison of soil greenhouse gas fluxes from extensive and intensive grazing in a temperate maritime climate by U. Skiba et al.
• 2013/02/26: BG: Spatial and temporal patterns of greenhouse gas emissions from Three Gorges Reservoir of China by Y. Zhao et al.
• 2013/02/25: BG: Warming increases carbon and nutrient fluxes from sediments in streams across land use by S.-W. Duan & S. S. Kaushal
• 2013/03/01: BGD: Apparent optical properties of the Canadian Beaufort Sea - Part 1: Observational overview and water column relationships by D. Antoine et al.
• 2013/03/01: BGD: Development of a regional-scale pollen emission and transport modeling framework for investigating the impact of climate change on allergic airway disease by R. Zhang et al.
• 2013/02/28: BGD: Late Holocene variations in Pacific surface circulation and biogeochemistry inferred from proteinaceous deep-sea corals by T. P. Guilderson et al.
• 2013/02/28: BGD: Inter-shelf nutrient transport from the East China Sea as a major nutrient source supporting winter primary production on the northeast South China Sea shelf by A. Han et al.
• 2013/02/27: BGD: The impact of oceanic circulation and phase transfer on the dispersion of radionuclides released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant by Y. Choi et al.
• 2013/02/26: BGD: Continuing Cs137 release to the sea from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant through 2012 by J. Kanda
• 2013/02/25: BGD: Mangroves facing climate change: landward migration potential in response to projected scenarios of sea level rise by D. Di Nitto et al.
• 2013/02/25: BGD: Climate change and ocean acidification impacts on lower trophic levels and the export of organic carbon to the deep ocean by A. Yool et al.
• 2013/03/01: CP: Southern westerlies in LGM and future (RCP4.5) climates by Y. Chavaillaz et al.
• 2013/03/01: CPD: A reconstruction of radiocarbon production and total solar irradiance from the Holocene C14 and CO2 records: implications of data and model uncertainties by R. Roth & F. Joos
• 2013/02/28: CP: Paleohydrology reconstruction and Holocene climate variability in the South Adriatic Sea by G. Siani et al.
• 2013/02/28: CP: A Late Glacial to Holocene record of environmental change from Lake Dojran (Macedonia, Greece) by A. Francke et al.
• 2013/02/25: CP: The East Asian Summer Monsoon at mid-Holocene: results from PMIP3 simulations by W. Zheng et al.
• 2013/02/28: CPD: East Asian monsoon climate simulated in the PlioMIP by R. Zhang et al.
• 2013/02/26: CPD: Towards a quasi-complete reconstruction of past atmospheric aerosol load and composition (organic and inorganic) over Europe since 1920 inferred from Alpine ice cores by S. Preunkert & M. Legrand
• 2013/02/28: Science: (ab$) Wild Pollinators Enhance Fruit Set of Crops Regardless of Honey Bee Abundance by Lucas A. Garibaldi et al.
• 2013/02/12: Nature:NComm: (ab$) Scalable fabrication of high-power graphene micro-supercapacitors for flexible and on-chip energy storage by Maher F. El-Kady et al.
• 2013/03/01: ACP: Black carbon vertical profiles strongly affect its radiative forcing uncertainty by B. H. Samset et al.
• 2013/03/01: ACP: Brown carbon absorption linked to organic mass tracers in biomass burning particles by D. A. Lack et al.
• 2013/03/01: ACP: Comparing two years of Saharan dust source activation obtained by regional modelling and satellite observations by I. Tegen et al.
• 2013/03/01: ACP: Intercomparison of shortwave radiative transfer schemes in global aerosol modeling: results from the AeroCom Radiative Transfer Experiment by C. A. Randles et al.
• 2013/03/01: GMD: Development of a parameterization of black carbon aging for use in general circulation models by N. Oshima & M. Koike
• 2013/03/01: OS: Global surface-ocean pCO2 and sea-air CO2 flux variability from an observation-driven ocean mixed-layer scheme by C. Rödenbeck et al.
• 2013/03/01: TC: Surface undulations of Antarctic ice streams tightly controlled by bedrock topography by J. De Rydt et al.
• 2013/03/01: TC: Grounding line transient response in marine ice sheet models by A. S. Drouet et al.
• 2013/02/28: TC: Bedmap2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica by P. Fretwell et al.
• 2013/02/28: TC: Retention and radiative forcing of black carbon in eastern Sierra Nevada snow by K. M. Sterle et al.
• 2013/02/28: TCD: Snowdrift modelling for Vestfonna ice cap, north-eastern Svalbard by T. Sauter et al.
• 2013/02/27: TCD: Effect of uncertainty in surface mass balance elevation feedback on projections of the future sea level contribution of the Greenland ice sheet - Part 2: Projections by T. L. Edwards et al.
• 2013/02/27: TCD: Effect of uncertainty in surface mass balance-elevation feedback on projections of the future sea level contribution of the Greenland ice sheet - Part 1: Parameterisation by T. L. Edwards et al.
• 2013/02/25: TC: Future Arctic marine access: analysis and evaluation of observations, models, and projections of sea ice by T. S. Rogers et al.
• 2013/02/25: TCD: Glacial areas, lake areas, and snowlines from 1975 to 2012: status of the Cordillera Vilcanota, including the Quelccaya Ice Cap, northern central Andes, Peru by M. N. Hanshaw & B. Bookhagen
• 2013/02/24: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Antarctic Bottom Water production by intense sea-ice formation in the Cape Darnley polynya by Kay I. Ohshima et al.
• 2013/02/24: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Nitrogen cycling driven by organic matter export in the South Pacific oxygen minimum zone by Tim Kalvelage et al.
• 2013/02/24: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Evolution of the subglacial drainage system beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed by tracers by D. M. Chandler et al.
• 2013/02/24: Nature:CC: (ab$) The UN's 'Sustainable Energy for All' initiative is compatible with a warming limit of 2 °C by Joeri Rogelj et al.
• 2013/02/24: Nature:CC: (ab$) Temporary refugia for coral reefs in a warming world by R. van Hooidonk et al.
• 2013/02/24: Nature:CC: (ab$) Reductions in labour capacity from heat stress under climate warming by John P. Dunne et al.
• 2013/02/24: CCP: "'To quarterback behind the scenes, third-party efforts': the tobacco industry and the Tea Party," by A. Fallin, R. Grana & S. A. Glantz, Tobacco Control; doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815
  

  And other significant documents:

• 2013/02/27: FOE Europe: [link to 327k pdf] Saving energy: bringing down Europe's energy prices for 2020 and beyond
• 2013/02/28: WHO: [link to 2.7 meg pdf] Health risk assessment from the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, based on a preliminary dose estimation
• 2013/02/27: SierraClubBC: [link to pdf] Carbon Sinks at Risk
• 2013/02/27: BPC: [links to pdfs] America's Energy Resurgence: Sustaining Success, Confronting Challenges
• 2013/02/25: PI: [link to 852k pdf] Carbon Pricing Approaches - In oil and gas producing jurisdictions
• 2013/03/01: US StateDept: [links to component pdfs] Draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)
• 2013/02/27: UK Govt: [link to 37k pdf] The [British] government's view on geoengineering research
  

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2013/03/02: Tamino: Theil-Sen
• 2013/02/27: CCP: NASA's Aquarius instrument aboard the SAC-D satellite sees shifts in ocean salinity
• 2013/02/27: NASA: NASA's Aquarius Sees Salty Shifts - changes in ocean salinity patterns revealed by the first full year of surface salinity data
• 2013/02/27: SciAm:Obs: Young Scientists Encourage the Public to Demand Peer Review
• 2013/02/25: Eureka: Macroweather is what you expect
• 2013/02/25: ClimateSight: A Visit to NCAR
• 2013/02/25: ERabett: Sadly No [Lüdecke, et al.]
• 2013/02/25: Tamino: Ludeckerous
• 2013/02/24: ERabett: Rotten to the Core
  

  What's new in models?

• 2013/02/27: SciAm:TCW: Are climate change models becoming more accurate and less reliable?
  

  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

• 2012/06/: HOAP: Open Access (the book)
• 2013/03/01: ACM: To Boycott or Not to Boycott
• 2013/02/28: SlashDot: Editorial In ACM On Open Access Publishing In Computer Science
• 2013/03/01: SlashDot: The Real Reason Journal Articles Should Be Free
• 2013/02/28: SciAm:IC: Good news about sharing scientific research
• 2013/02/27: NatureNB: Nature Publishing Group buys into open-access publisher
• 2013/02/26: UCSUSA:B: White House Memo Asks Agencies to Figure Out Open Access Publishing
• 2013/02/26: NatureN: US science to be open to all -- Government mandates that taxpayer-funded research be freely available within 12 months
• 2013/02/25: EnvEcon: At what point in our history did we decide that federally-funded data COULD be the sole property of the researcher?
  

  Regarding Diamond:

• 2013/03/02: TheConversation: In Conversation with Jared Diamond: "Traditional societies are not frozen models of the past"
  

  Meanwhile at the UN:

• 2013/02/26: RTCC: UN launches new climate technology network
  Industrial scale transfers of low-carbon technologies to the developing world is a step closer to reality after plans for a Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) were signed off by the United Nations in Nairobi on Friday.
• 
  

  And on the carbon trading front:

   

• 2013/03/02: ERabett:BSD: California cap-trade passes second test better than first
• 2013/02/27: BBerg: UN Carbon Offsets for March Rise 94% as Compliance Buying Jumps
  United Nations carbon credits for March jumped the most ever and trading rose to the highest in more than two months ahead of a deadline to surrender permits and offsets in the European Union's carbon market.
• 2013/02/26: EurActiv: Carbon market intrigue after European Parliament vote cancelled
  A planned European Parliament vote today (26 February) on fast-tracking negotiations with EU states over carbon market reform was inexplicably cancelled as rumours and counter-rumours swirled around Brussels.
• 2013/02/25: Reuters: [Quick fix in slo mo] EU lawmakers will not vote Tuesday on drafting CO2 law
  

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2013/03/01: RTCC: South Africa to launch carbon tax in 2015
• 2013/02/26: RTCC: Ecuador finalising OPEC oil tax plans
  Ecuador will introduce plans for a small carbon tax on oil at the May meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The initiative would see a 3-5% tax levied on every barrel of oil exported to rich countries. Funds would be transferred directly to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and Ecuador believes it could raise up to US$80bn a year.
• 2013/02/25: EnvEcon: "The Case for a Higher Gasoline Tax"
  

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

• 2013/02/27: EUO: EU: financial tax should be used for development aid and climate
  The European Commission said revenue from a proposed financial transaction tax (FTT) should be set aside to fight poverty and climate change, as an investment against global instability.
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/03/01: Guardian(UK): Glencore supplied firm that provided aluminium to Iran nuclear programme
  Commodities trader says it immediately 'ceased transactions' with Iralco after learning of its deal with Iranian programme
• 2013/02/28: WSWS: Talks on Iran's nuclear program reach no agreement
• 2013/02/26: BBerg: Iran Nuclear Talks to Resume Next Month as Meeting Ends
• 2013/02/25: NYT: Iran Said to Deploy Aging Foreign Tankers, Avoiding Sanctions
• 2013/02/25: Trend(Az): Oil minister [Rostam Qasemi]: Iran could revise its oil export policy [ie build more refineries]
  

  South [& East] China Sea tension persists:

• 2013/03/02: WSWS: Japanese PM calls for a "strong Japan"
  In his policy speech to the Japanese parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a "strong Japan" and ominously drew a parallel between the current tense standoff with China over disputed islands in the South China Sea and the Falklands war in 1982 between Britain and Argentina.
• 2013/03/01: CSM: [Editorial] In China-Japan island clash, a peaceful diversion
  With China and Japan appearing close to a conflict over a few small islands, it's time to pull out a practical tool of peacemaking: Divert the contending parties toward a shared interest. That tactic often calms the waters, creates trust, and buys time. Since 2010, either by mishap or design, Tokyo and Beijing have escalated a confrontation over ownership of the uninhabited Senkaku islands (known in China as the Diaoyu islands). What has largely been forgotten is that the two Asian giants were talking only a few years ago about joint exploration of potential oil wealth in the South China Sea. They played down the issue of sovereignty in favor of common economic goals.
• 2013/03/01: al Jazeera: S Korea seeks to wrest islands from Japan
  Country to run publicity campaign to pressure Japan to peacefully surrender claim to disputed islands.
• 2013/02/27: WSWS: Former top Obama official warns of "powder keg" in Asia
  An interview with Kurt Campbell, former US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific, in the Australian this week has again underlined the acute dangers posed by the tense standoff between China and Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea. Campbell, who was Obama's top diplomat to the region until two weeks ago, bluntly described the situation in North East Asia as "like a powder keg."
• 2013/02/26: WSWS: Japanese premier signals military buildup during US visit
• 2013/02/21: FA: The United States Heads to the South China Sea -- Why American Involvement Will Mean More Friction -- Not Less
  

  Now that the EU-ETS for airlines is in year long limbo, will it ever be resurrected?

• 2013/02/27: EurActiv: MEPs vote to give foreign airlines a break on ETS
  European Union lawmakers on Tuesday (26 February) backed a Commission plan to suspend for a year a law that would make all airlines using EU airports pay for their carbon emissions, and urged US President Barack Obama to accelerate a global deal.
• 2013/02/27: EUO: Euro-deputies on Tuesday voted in favour of exempting intercontinental flights into Europe from having to pay a carbon tax for up to one year
• 2013/02/26: Reuters: EU lawmakers back suspension of airline carbon payments
  European Union lawmakers on Tuesday backed a Commission plan to suspend for a year a law that would make all airlines using EU airports pay for their carbon emissions, and urged U.S. President Barack Obama to accelerate a global deal.
• 
  

  In the solar squabbles between China and Europe:

   

• 2013/02/28: EurActiv: EU launches anti-dumping probe of Chinese solar glass
  The European Commission launched an investigation today (28 February) into industry claims that Chinese solar glass producers are dumping their products in the European Union at below market value, opening a new front in the trade battle with China. The Commission said there was sufficient evidence to show possible dumping by Chinese exporters that may be injuring EU industry. The EU solar glass market is valued at less than E200 million, the Commission said.
• 2013/02/27: EurActiv: Vanheukelen: 'Plenty of concerns' about Chinese solar retaliation
  The head of EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht's cabinet has told EurActiv that the bloc has many worries about a clean-tech trade war with China over unfair subsidisation of solar panels, but that its hands are tied.
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/02/28: RTCC: UK must prepare for climate conflict warns new envoy [Neil Morisetti, the British Foreign Secretary's new Special Representative for Climate Change]
  Conflict and instability caused by climate change are likely to impact the UK in the future, the country's new top climate diplomat has warned.
• 2013/02/28: DD: Former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge: 'Climate change is a national security threat'
• 2013/02/27: RTCC: US Generals warn of climate change dangers
  A leading group of US security experts has warned of the imminent threat of climate change in an open letter to US policymakers.
• 2013/02/26: ICN: National Security Push to Address Climate Change
  A bipartisan group of former U.S. foreign policy officials, military leaders and lawmakers pushed on Monday for action on addressing climate change in poor nations, arguing it represents a major national security threat.
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/03/02: ABC(Au): Boggabri Coal protestor acquitted
  The case against an environmentalist, who chained herself to a bulldozer to stop Boggabri Coal's clearing of the Leard State Forest, has been thrown out of Narrabri Local Court. In April last year, Carmel Flint placed her arms into a steel pipe and attached it to the hydraulic ram of a bulldozer. She faced three charges, one of which carried a maximum jail term of seven years.
• 2013/02/25: Guardian(UK): Will EDF become the Barbra Streisand of climate protest? [Monbiot]
  The energy giant is part of a global strategy by corporations to stifle democracy. Clearly it hasn't heard of the Streisand effect
• 2013/02/24: Guardian(UK): EDF faces calls to drop legal action against activists
  8,000 sign petition calling on energy company to abandon £5m civil action against activists who occupied power plant
• 
  

  What are the activists up to?

   

• 2013/03/01: Guardian(UK): Shell targeted by musical protest at South Bank concert
  Climate activists sing out against oil company in latest in series of actions against controversial arts sponsors
• 2013/02/26: Grist: Keystone scolds should let activists be activists
• 2013/02/27: TreeHugger: Why fossil fuel divestment is key to climate progress
• 2013/02/26: TP:JR: McKibben Must-Read: The Case For Fossil-Fuel Divestment
  

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2013/03/01: CCurrents: Environmental Awareness Drops To Lowest, Finds A Global Study
• 2013/02/28: Guardian(UK): Public concern for environment lowest in 20 years
• 2013/02/27: TreeHugger: Apparently nobody cares about the environment anymore
  

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2013/03/01: CRI: Understanding Water and Groundwater Pollution
• 2013/03/01: JFleck: Where the Bellagio Fountain's water comes from
• 2013/03/01: HuffPo: Water Wars? Here in the US? by Peter Gleick
• 2013/02/27: TP:JR: It's Not Too Late to Change the Course of the Vanishing Colorado River
• 2013/02/27: NatureN: Environmental concerns reach fever pitch over plan to link Red Sea to Dead Sea
  Controversies linger over the project's impact and the status of the Palestinian Authority.
• 2013/02/25: ERW: Insight: how much water is used at power plants?
• 2013/02/26: WSWS: Over four billion people worldwide lack adequate sanitation
• 2013/02/23: DetroitNews: Low lake levels have Michigan harbors, marinas scrambling to keep waterways navigable
• 2013/02/24: JFleck: Insanely cool new evapotranspiration maps from USGS team
  

  While in the UK:

• 2013/03/01: BBC: Slump cuts our fuel use more than green concerns
  Households have cut back on vehicle fuel over the past decade, but not on household gas, according to an analysis by the Office for National Statistics. The figures were released to coincide with next week's Climate Week, the UK's biggest climate change campaign. But the statistics offer little cheer to a government trying to persuade its citizens to burn less fuel. The recession and high fuel prices are demonstrably changing behaviour more than concerns about the environment.
• 2013/02/28: Guardian(UK): EDF's vengeful £5m No Dash for Gas lawsuit is corporate and PR suicide [Monbiot]
  EDF will lose this petty and anti-democratic fight against the climate activists -- and it will cost them their reputation
• 2013/02/26: EUO: Bogus UK farmland received EU farm aid [via CAP]
• 2013/02/26: ScienceInsider: Ireland Invests in Industry-Backed Research Centers
  

  And in Europe:

• 2013/03/01: BBC: EU introduces illegal timber import controls
  Measures to prevent illegally harvested timber from entering the European Union come into force on Sunday.
• 2013/02/28: EurActiv: Germany moves to allow [fracking] controversial shale gas drilling
  Germany, a country struggling hard to find energy resources to replace nuclear power, has taken a step towards allowing the tapping of shale gas via hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a practice contested by the opposition and public opinion.
• 2013/02/28: EurActiv: Report: E250 billion in annual energy savings possible by 2030
  The EU could make net savings of E250 billion per year by 2030 if it reduces energy use 35% below 2005 levels, says a new report commissioned by environmental pressure groups. The report, Saving Energy, says that the EU will save a further E200 billion annually, if it meets a voluntary 2020 target of using 20% less energy than projected in 2005.
• 2013/02/28: EUO: Germany eyes rules for [fracking] controversial gas extraction
• 2013/02/27: FOE Europe: [link to 327k pdf] Saving energy: bringing down Europe's energy prices for 2020 and beyond
• 2013/02/27: EurActiv: EU sees itself as 'role model' for global environment, anti-poverty talks
  The European Commission on Wednesday (27 February) called for merging the fight against poverty and environmental protection into a single framework for the future, casting itself as the "role model" for the rest of the world.
• 2013/02/27: EurActiv: Press 'Ctrl Alt Delete' on green computers vote, say clean energy groups
  MEPs will vote tomorrow (28 February) on proposals for binding energy efficiency standards for computers and servers, but clean energy groups say that without more ambitious targets the whole exercise could be a "waste of time".
• 2013/02/26: DerSpiegel: Gas Guidelines: Berlin Agrees on Fracking Regulations
  Chancellor Angela Merkel's government on Monday took an important step toward establishing regulations for fracking, the controversial method of exploiting unconventional gas deposits. A natural gas boom similar to the one in the US seems unlikely.
• 2013/02/27: BBC: EU ministers back fish dumping ban
  European Union fisheries ministers have agreed to phase out the controversial practice of dumping unwanted fish. After a tense all-night meeting, ministers said a ban on "discards" should be phased in, starting in January 2014 for certain types of fish. It is a victory for campaigners who have demanded the end of a practice that has brought the EU into disrepute. But activists fear that exemptions for certain countries could open loopholes to be exploited in future talks.
• 2013/02/26: BBerg: Germany Agrees on Regulation to Allow Fracking for Shale Gas
  

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Great Lakes targets Greenhouse gas emissions
  A mid north coast council is implementing an innovative new way to reducing Greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. The Great Lakes Council is putting bio-covers over its landfills, by spreading a thick layer of mulch which helps break down methane gas. The council's John Cavanagh said the covers are being used at the Tuncurry, Tea Gardens and Bulahdelah landfills.
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): [WA] Labor promises to open up solar energy market
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): [WA] Liberals promise Australia's biggest national park
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): Gillard announces $100m flood mitigation fund
  Home insurance premiums could be slashed by as much as 70 per cent with the help of a $100 million fund to alleviate flooding in high-risk areas, according to the Federal Government. Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the money will be used for flood mitigation projects around the country, with $50 million of that to be spent raising the level of Sydney's Warragamba Dam. A further $10 million will be spent around Ipswich, west of Brisbane, and $7 million will go towards raising the level of the flood levee around Roma in southern Queensland.
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Federal Govt stops funding to [National Climate Change Adaptation Research facility]
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Bushfire report tallies big losses
  The scale of the destruction from last month's bushfires in Tasmania has been detailed for the first time. The Government's Bushfire Recovery Taskforce says 415 buildings were destroyed in four major bushfires, including 203 three homes and shacks. Of the 310 properties owners who have sought help to rebuild, about 15 per cent had no insurance at all. The taskforce's interim action plan estimates affected farmers in the south-east have lost an average of $200,000 worth of equipment and livestock.
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Counting flood costs
  Byron Shire Council has been quick to add up its storm damage bill. The council says last week's storm will cost it around 1.1 million dollars in repairs.
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Public warning on Unleashed Solar
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Firefighters set for luxury cruise
  Five Tasmanian volunteer fire fighters and their partners are set for the trip of a lifetime on the cruise liner, Queen Mary 2. The volunteers will spend three days on the ship as part of a "Salute to the Summer Heroes" sailing. They will be joined by emergency service volunteers from interstate.
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Greens, Coalition unite to open mining tax inquiry
  The Senate has voted to hold another inquiry into the Federal Government's mining tax. The Greens and Coalition joined forces to set up the inquiry into the design of the tax and why it has failed to collect the amount of revenue forecast by Treasury. The tax raised $126 million in its first six months, well below the yearly forecast of $2 billion.
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Key climate change body loses Government funding
  A key research body charged with preparing Australia to handle the impacts of global warming is running out of money. The National Climate Change Adaptation Research facility [NCCARF] has been running for five years but the Federal Government has decided not to extend its funding. It means that from June the facility, which develops knowledge used by decision-makers from both the Commonwealth and industry, is expected to be wound up. Over the years the facility has fostered 140 projects across 33 universities around Australia With more than 100 researchers set to be affected by the funding cut, Professor Jean Palutikof, director at the facility, says she is saddened and concerned that critical work may not being followed through.
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): [Tasmania's] Fire-fighting bill tops $5m
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): School children rescued as flash flood strands bus
  

  The questions over coal seam gas are still kicking around:

• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): Bass Coast council questions CSG framework
  The Bass Coast Shire Council says the Federal Government's draft national framework for coal seam gas (CSG) will not protect farmers.
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): Pollies to feel the heat from CSG forums
  Farmers in the region are hoping to garner support from town residents as part of efforts to block mining and coal seam gas. Meetings are being held in Tamworth, Gunnedah, Narrabri and Moree to find out whether urban communities support, or oppose, the industries' expansion. The umbrella group, North West Alliance, wants to use the feedback to lobby MPs and candidates ahead of the September federal election.
• 
  

  It's a long way to the September election:

   

• 2013/03/02: JQuiggin: Bait and switch
• 2013/02/27: TheConversation: Will the Opposition's Direct Action Plan work?
• 2013/02/27: UKISS: The Mad Monk's mob of...
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Hockey backtracks on carbon tax compensation
• 2013/02/25: Guardian(UK): Australian climate outlook remains bleak with Tony Abbott out for revenge
  

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

• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Queensland floods fill dams and aquifers
• 2013/03/01: ABC(Au): Re-use scheme taps into water savings
  Alice Springs residents will soon be able to buy recycled and treated water for the first time.
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): Water authority says Federal Government to blame for cutbacks
  Rural water authority Goulburn-Murray Water is blaming the Murray-Darling Basin plan for a cost-cutting program at the organisation. Irrigation prices will be standardised, 100 jobs will go and $20 million will be saved over five years.
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): Irrigators want valley by valley detail on Basin water acquisitions
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): NSW Irrigators slam MDBA plan
• 2013/02/28: ABC(Au): Millions of litres of water needed for new [Dunedoo] coal mine [in central western New South Wales]
• 2013/02/27: ABC(Au): Snowy River supporters condemn committee axing
  Environmentalists say the health of the Snowy River is under threat again because the New South Wales Government is planning to axe an independent scientific advisory committee. The Government is intending to replace it with another committee funded by the Snowy scheme's operator, Snowy Hydro Limited. The Snowy River Alliance says that's a clear conflict of interest.
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Farms thirsty for Murray-Darling water
  Demand for water from the Murray-Darling Basin is the highest it has been in more than a decade. During January, 800,000 megalitres of water was used from storages.
• 2013/02/26: ABC(Au): Floodwater arrives in western NSW
• 2013/02/27: ABC(Au): MDBA chief [Craig Knowles] wants a review of Basin funding
  The head of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority wants an urgent, independent review of the way the Basin is operated and how that's paid for.
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): Murray-Darling Basin Authority Advisory Committee
  The discussions around the Murray Darling Basin Plan have gone a bit quiet in the months since the plan was adopted. But as the plan is rolled out, you can expect the discussion and debate will fire up again, as the Authority tries to balance the competing needs of community, economy and environment.
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): Work resumes on $100m Pike floodplain project
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): Water levels hit a new high
  Dam levels on the New South Wales Central Coast are the highest they have been been in almost 20 years. Recent rain has boosted total storage by more than seven-and-a-half billion litres or four percent of capacity over the past week. Local dam levels are now at 54 percent of capacity.
• 2013/02/25: ABC(Au): Cotter Dam starts to fill
  After years of delays and budget blowouts, the $400 million enlarged Cotter Dam has started collecting water for the ACT. The embattled Cotter Dam reached its full height in December 2012 and now the 80 metre wall has begun its real task of impounding water.
• 
  

  And in the Indian subcontinent:

   

• 2013/03/02: CCurrents: Three POSCO Resisters Killed In Bomb Attack
  Three villagers who are on a historical struggle against land acquistion for a POSCO steel plant in Patna village, Dhinkia , Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa state, India, died after a group of people threw bomb at the villagers. Manas Jena (32) died on the spot. Two injured persons, Nabanu Mandal (35) Narahari Sahoo (52) died after waiting for half an hour for an ambulance to take them to hospital. Another villager, Laxman Paramanik is critically injured and is admitted to a hospital. The attack took place around 6.30 PM today evening. Prashant Paikary, Spokesperson for POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti said the assailants were POSCO company and state-sponsored goons. He said the villagers informed the police about the incident , asking for an ambulance to take the injured to the hospital, but the police didn't respond.
• 2013/03/01: ScienceInsider: Lackluster Budget Leaves Indian Scientists Little to Cheer
• 2013/02/28: CCurrents: Budget 2013 Is Immoral, Anti-Environment, Anti-Citizens, Pro-commercial Czars [India pol]
  

  While in China:

• 2013/02/28: NBC:B: Sandstorm pushes Beijing pollution levels off the charts
• 2013/02/28: Grist: Beijing's smog is so bad it can hide a 1,000-foot skyscraper
• 2013/02/26: ERabett: China
• 2013/02/26: Guardian(UK): Chinese pollution study 'blocked on grounds of state secrecy'
  Lawyer claims watchdog refused to publish major soil pollution study as public fears grow over environment and health
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/02/20: TheCanadian: Leaked Documents Show Pipeline Lobby Drove Cuts to Water Protections
• 2013/03/01: BCLSB: Feds Ask: How Do We Extract Resources From A Melting Arctic?
• 2013/02/28: CBC: Oliver announces search for firm to run Chalk River -- But research facility will no longer produce medical isotopes after 2016
• 2013/02/25: BCLSB: You Don't Get Credit For Choices Forced Upon You
  And therefore Peter Kent gets no credit for announcing, for about the third time now, that Canada will follow U.S. emissions standards for heavy duty vehicles made in this country.
• 2013/02/25: PI: Pembina reacts to federal announcement on heavy-duty vehicle regulations
• 2013/02/25: CBC: New emissions regulations released for heavy-duty trucks - to align Canada with U.S. standards
• 2013/02/25: CPW: Chief Spence takes fight against Harper government's Bill C-45 to UN
• 2013/02/25: CBC: Shell consortium gets nod for 25-year LNG export licence
  The federal government has approved a 25-year export licence for shipping liquefied natural gas from a West Coast terminal [in Kitimat] proposed by a consortium headed by Shell. [...] The licence awarded to LNG Canada -- a consortium of Shell, Korea Gas Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., and PetroChina International -- will allow the export of up to 24 million tonnes of LNG per year, the largest of three export licences awarded to date.
• 2013/02/24: PostMedia: Federal government sent mixed messages to industry, First Nations about environmental reforms
  Environment Canada recommended one set of messages for First Nations groups and another for industry stakeholders a few months before the Harper government adopted sweeping changes to Canada's environmental laws in 2012, says newly-released internal briefing notes obtained by Postmedia News. The reforms, which reduced federal oversight on industrial development and weakened some environmental legislation, including laws protecting species at risk and water, have prompted a national protest movement in recent weeks that adopted the "Idle No More" slogan to defend the rights of Aboriginal Canadians.
• 2013/02/25: HillTimes: Feds using 'smoke and mirrors' to report GHG reductions, say opposition MPs
  The government says it's 'halfway' to meeting its Copenhagen Accord GHG reductions targets, but NDP MP Megan Leslie says the Conservatives are using 'creative accounting.'
  [...]
  The report stated Canada was "halfway" to reaching its target. But figures and forecasts contained in the report, and confirmed for The Hill Times by Environment Canada, show Canada is actually on track to produce 720 million tonnes of emissions by 2020...
  [...]
  Ambiguous wording in Mr. Kent's update, which Environment Canada later clarified for The Hill Times, actually meant the government was citing a halfway point between an estimate of what greenhouse gas emissions would have been had Canada taken no action at all -- 850 million tonnes of emissions in 2020 and the Copenhagen Accord goal of 607 million tonnes.
• 
  

  The Harper gang continues muzzling scientists:

   

• 2013/03/01: Rabble:EM: Tightening the grip: Muzzling of scientists ramps up
• 2013/02/27: CCP: Canadian climate scientists muzzled by the Harper government -- American coworkers sort of go ballistic: Rick's Rant
• 2013/02/25: WpgFP: Accessing scientific info no easy task in Canada
  A scientist discovers one of the biggest holes in the ozone layer ever found is sitting over the Arctic, but after his report is published in a respected scientific journal, the Canadian government won't let him speak and writes his responses to media questions for him. Scientists at an international conference in Montreal are shadowed by government communications staff to make sure they comply with an order not to speak publicly on the issue of polar science. A reporter can't get information from Canada about a scientific research experiment but gets the information from an American agency in mere minutes. It may seem like part of a paranoid 1984-like dreamland, but these are all things that actually have happened in Canada in the last few years. The Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria and the national lobby group Democracy Watch say it has to stop.
• 
  

  No Comment:

   

• 2013/02/26: PostMedia: National Research Council chief defends industry-driven direction under Harper government
  Canada has turned into one of the world's big spenders in science research, but without much benefit to our economy, says the president of the National Research Council. Time to change that, John McDougall believes. McDougall has swung the NRC in new directions since Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed him nearly three years ago: More effort at solving problems of industry, less "curiosity-driven" work with no obvious, immediate application.
• 
  

  The Harper gang are twisting in the wind while the yanks do the Keystone-shake:

   

• 2013/03/03: MSimon: Stephen Harper and the Carbon Trap
• 2013/03/01: NorRe: The Second Coming
  The word on the street is the Harper government has informed Washington that, if it doesn't approve the Keystone XL Pipeline, there will be a catastrophic rupture in Canadian-American relations -- "the biggest deep freeze in Canada-U.S. relations ever."
  Now, there's a threat which must have caused panic in Washington. Iran is going nuclear, North Korea is going ballistic, and Canada is going -- blue. If the U.S. doesn't want our sticky oil, what are we to do? It's looking more and more like the pipeline to Kitimat is a non-starter. Perhaps the Harperites will have to settle for a pipeline to New Brunswick.
  [...]
  Wouldn't that be the National Energy Program with a new name?
• 2013/02/28: iPolitics: Better duck, Mr. President -- Ottawa is mad as hell
• 2013/02/28: CSM: Canada minister [Oliver] 'cautiously optimistic' US will approve Keystone XL
• 2013/02/28: DeSmogBlog: Does Gary Doer Know Canada Buys $780 Million in Crude Oil from Hugo Chavez Every Year?
• 2013/02/27: G&M: Obama rejection of Keystone would chill Canada-U.S. relations for years
• 2013/02/27: PostMedia: U.S. 'silent majority' wants Keystone XL pipeline: Doer -- Ambassador says it's time to look beyond celebrity protesters
• 2013/02/26: PostMedia: Saskatchewan premier heading to Washington to push energy, pipeline
  

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

• 2013/02/28: Straight: Joyce Murray campaign receives a boost from groups promoting democratic reform
• 2013/02/28: Far-n-Wide: Sun Rising On Liberal "Darkhorse" [Joyce Murray]
• 2013/02/27: PostMedia: Joyce Murray gets hip hop hooray in rapper son's new video promoting Liberal leadership bid
• 2013/02/26: CBC: Having conquered space, Garneau aims for Canada's top job
  

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

• 2013/03/02: AlexandraMorton: Alextalks#2
  

  In BC, the stage is set for the May 14th election. Now what will Clark and Dix do?

• 2013/03/02: BuckDog: B.C. Liberals In Damage Control - Premier And Cabinet To Hold Emergency Cabinet Meeting Sunday
• 2013/03/02: PRespun: Are the wheels coming off the bus?
• 2013/03/02: CBC: [BC] Grits grapple with resignations amid 'ethnic vote' conflict
• 2013/03/02: BCLSB: The Stench Of Death Engulfs Them
• 2013/03/01: TheCanadian: 'Heartwood' Explores Clash Between Different Visions for Future of Forestry
• 2013/03/01: CBC: B.C. premier's top staffer resigns amid 'ethnic vote' controversy
• 2013/03/01: Tyee: Close Aide to Premier Clark Resigns
  Controversy over leaked Liberal plan to win ethnic vote claims the job of Kim Haakstad, a longtime ally.
• 2013/02/27: TheCanadian: LNG 'Prosperity' Will Always be Just Around the Corner for BC
• 2013/02/27: TheCanadian: Fractured Land Subject Caleb Behn in Vancouver to Discuss Indigenous Law, Resources
• 2013/02/27: CBC: Old-growth logging for 1 year blows away carbon reductions -- Coast Forest Products Association disputes Sierra Club report, saying group wants to halt logging
  One year of logging old-growth forests in southwestern British Columbia blows away a year of carbon reductions accomplished by initiatives like the carbon tax. That's the finding of a Sierra Club report released today, entitled Carbon at Risk: B.C.'s Unprotected Old-growth Rainforest.
• 2013/02/27: Tyee: 'This Is Huge': Sweeping Forest Bill Gathers Foes
  Enviros, other opponents say vast 'giveaway' looms with scant public input. A British Columbia government bill that would radically shift the management of public forests is drawing criticism from environmental groups, the head of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and opposition politicians. The bill, however, is in the middle of a legislative log jam and may not pass before the province's politicians leave the legislature to hit the campaign trail.
• 2013/02/26: TheCanadian: Premier Touts BC's 'Clean' Natural Gas to LNG Conference...but is it?
• 2013/02/25: TheCanadian: Gas Conglomerate Signs $200 Million Benefit Deal with First Nations for Pipeline, LNG
• 2013/02/24: G&M: B.C. NDP holds big lead over Liberals in latest poll results
  [...] A new poll, by Angus Reid Public Opinion, shows Mr. Dix and the NDP have a commanding 16-point lead as they head toward the May 14 election.
• 
  

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

   

• 2013/03/02: Tyee: Alberta's Tar Sands Pollution Refugees
  'Gassed' by oil sands operations, families say they've been forced to evacuate.
• 2013/02/25: PI: New report shows path to better oilsands, climate accountability for Alberta and Canada
• 2013/02/25: PI: [link to 852k pdf] Carbon Pricing Approaches - In oil and gas producing jurisdictions
• 2013/02/26: CPW: New [PI] report shows path to better oilsands, climate accountability for Alberta and Canada
• 2013/02/25: P3: Bury you head in the (tar) sand
• 2013/02/24: PostMedia: Experts have warned of 'bitumen bubble' for years
• 2013/02/24: TMoS: Riding the Petro-Tiger
  

  Also in Alberta:

• 2013/02/25: Reuters: Alberta pulls funding from carbon-capture project
• 2013/02/26: CBC: Alberta's CO2 capture target falls after project scrapped
  Another carbon capture and storage project has been scrapped in Alberta, raising questions about the province's ability to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Only two of four government-funded carbon capture projects remain on track in the province following Swan Hills Synfuels announcement this week that it's shelving its plan due to low natural gas prices.
• 2013/02/25: BBerg: Alberta Cancels Funds for Swan Hills Carbon-Capture Project
  Alberta and Swan Hills Synfuels LP canceled plans to develop a carbon-capture and storage project, the second CCS initiative to be scuttled in the Canadian province in less than a year. The provincial government won't provide the C$285 million ($278 million) in financing it had previously committed to closely-held Swan Hills Synfuels, they said in a joint statement today.
• 
  

  While in Saskatchewan:

   

• 2013/02/27: CBC: Carbon storage project at U of R [IPAC-CO2] may be wound up, Premier Wall says
• 2013/02/25: BuckDog: "Saskatchewan NDP Leadership - Part 3 - Taking Stock" - Guest Post By Dan Tan
  

  In Manitoba, heavier than usual snow accumulation has people a little on edge. The last floods were expensive:

• 2013/02/27: Manitoba: Province issues 2013 February flood outlook
  Minor to Moderate Flooding Likely Along Red, Souris, Pembina, Assiniboine Rivers and in the Interlake
• 2013/02/27: CBC: Satellite imagery could help flood fight in Manitoba
  

  In Ontario, Wynne has won. Now what?

• 2013/03/01: CleanBreak: Plans for green jet fuel plant in Ontario north flame out
• 2013/02/28: TStar: Kathleen Wynne admits scrapping gas plants was 'political decision'
  

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2013/03/01: SkS: Living in Denial in Canada by Andy Skuce
  

  And on the American political front:

• 2013/02/27: Grist: Can we afford to give a $40 billion gift to oil companies?
• 2013/02/26: TP:JR: Suppressed South Carolina Climate Change Report Warns of Big Impacts
• 2013/02/27: TreeHugger: Smog-forming emissions from U.S. power plants have been declining for 20+ years
• 2013/02/27: Grist: Piranha cover-up in South Carolina
  Piranhas could be poised to invade South Carolina. Scarier than the possibility of being eaten alive while taking a dip in Palmetto State waters is the fact that government officials tried to keep the danger a secret from the state's people.
• 2013/02/28: DeSmogBlog: ALEC Sham Chemical Disclosure Model Tucked Into Illinois Fracking Bill
• 2013/03/01: BBerg: CNOOC Said to Cede Control of Nexen's U.S. Gulf Assets
• 2013/03/01: CCP: Ventura County Dems first in nation to call for divestment of fossil-fuel companies by UC, CalPERS, among others
• 2013/02/28: Grist: Al Gore's 'Reality Drop' gamifies climate news commenting
• 2013/02/28: DeSmogBlog: Not Smart, But Not ALEC Either
• 2013/03/02: Grist: Top four reasons the U.S. still doesn't have a single offshore wind turbine
• 2013/02/25: P3: Calls for Climate Summit
• 2013/03/01: Grist: Energy-efficiency program killed in Louisiana
• 2013/03/01: SciAm:PI: Reign of Error, Part Whatever
• 2013/02/26: GLaden: City of Angels Will Dump Coal by 2025
• 2013/03/02: TP:JR: Latinos Agree: We Have To Address Climate Change
• 2013/02/26: Grist: Sanders Moore hopes sunny New Mexico gets enchanted with solar
• 2013/02/26: RTCC: Tea Party prepares for last stand against climate action [in the courts]
• 2013/02/25: DeSmogBlog: Sand Land: Minnesota Mayor and Fracking Industry Lobbyist Resigns
• 2013/02/25: GLaden: Antiscience bill dies in Arizona
• 2013/02/23: DetroitNews: Low lake levels have Michigan harbors, marinas scrambling to keep waterways navigable
• 2013/02/24: TheState: Secret climate report calls for action in SC
  A team of state scientists has outlined serious concerns about the damage South Carolina will suffer from climate change -- threats that include invading eels, dying salt marshes, flooded homes and increased diseases in the state's wildlife. But few people have seen the team's study. The findings are outlined in a report on global warming that has been kept secret by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources for more than a year because agency officials say their "priorities have changed." DNR board members never put the study out for public review as planned. The State newspaper recently obtained a copy.
• 
  

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

   

• 2013/02/25: ABC(US): Timeline of Gulf Oil Spill and Ensuing Legal Cases
  

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

• 2013/03/01: US StateDept: [links to component pdfs] Draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)
• 2013/03/01: US StateDept: State Department Releases Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline
• 2013/03/02: CPW: State Department's Keystone XL Project Review Upsets Environmentalists
• 2013/03/02: Guardian(UK): Keystone XL pipeline report slammed by activists and scientists
  Sierra Club leads angry response to 'deeply flawed' State Department report into proposed oil sands pipeline
• 2013/03/02: Grist: Van Jones: Keystone XL would be 'the Obama Pipeline'
• 2013/03/02: CCurrents: Some Tough News On Keystone XL [McKibben]
• 2013/03/02: CSM: State Department has no major objections to Keystone XL pipeline
• 2013/03/02: CBC: Keystone XL supporters hail U.S. State Dept. report
• 2013/03/02: al Jazeera: US study gives boost to Keystone oil pipeline
  State Department concludes controversial pipeline from Canada will not cause "substantial change" in carbon emissions.
• 2013/03/01: DeSmogBlog: Live Blogging the Keystone XL Environmental Assessment Release
• 2013/03/01: FDL: State Department Clears Keystone Pipeline For Approval
• 2013/03/01: CBC: Keystone XL won't boost oilsands growth, U.S. State Dept. says -- Pipeline no greater risk than other methods of transport, official says
• 2013/03/01: BBC: A US government report on controversial plans to build an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas says the project raises no major environmental concerns
• 2013/03/01: Reuters: US State Dept issues draft review of Keystone XL pipeline
  [...]
  Issuing an assessment that ran more than 2,000 pages, the Obama administration completed a step it had to take before a period of public comment. A final decision on TransCanada Corp's project is not expected until July or August. Starting next Friday the review will be open to public comment for 45 days.
• 2013/03/01: CSW: The State Dept's Keystone XL pipeline draft impact statement is out for public review
• 2013/03/01: OilChange: Oil Change International Statement on Draft Keystone XL EIS
• 2013/03/01: DD: Blocking Keystone XL pipeline won't save the climate, State Department analysis says
• 2013/03/01: TP:JR: State Department Report: Keystone XL Is Environmentally Sound
• 2013/03/01: Grist: State Dept. on Keystone XL: So not a big deal
• 2013/03/01: RTCC: The US should reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, according to the EU climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard
• 2013/03/01: EurActiv: Hedegaard challenges US to get serious about climate change
  Connie Hedegaard, the EU's top climate change official, said on Thursday (28 February) that if the Obama administration rejects the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, it would send a strong message that the United States is serious about combating climate change.
• 2013/03/01: OilChange: Industry experts expect Keystone XL crude to be directly exported
• 2013/02/28: Time:B: I'm with the Tree Huggers -- The activists fighting the Keystone XL pipeline are radical-and right
• 2013/02/26: OilChange: Senators send pro-Keystone XL letter, once again drenched with oil money
• 2013/02/26: CSM: Will trains derail the Keystone XL pipeline?
• 2013/02/25: Grist:Southern section of Keystone XL pipeline is already halfway done
• 2013/02/26: TreeHugger: Even Rupert Murdoch thinks Keystone XL is a dumb idea
  

  The GOP War on Women continues. See also:

• 2013/02/26: ACLU: Despite Legal Obligations, Over Half of [Native American] Indian Health Services Facilities Reportedly Offer No Emergency Contraception
• 2013/02/23: RawStory: House Republicans strip LGBT, Native American protections from Violence Against Women Act
  

  The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:

• 2013/02/27: Grist: Nine reasons China won't need enough coal to justify coal ports in the Pacific Northwest
• 2013/02/26: Grist: Seattle 'green' consultants sell out for coal money, whine
  

  There has been a lot of chatter lately about congressional gridlock and budgetary sequestration:

• 2013/03/01: KSJT: What the sequester means for U.S. research.
• 2013/03/01: al Jazeera: Cuts in science funding: Where is our country heading?
  It's important to consider what limits budgetary cuts will place on medical research, and ultimately society's progress.
• 2013/02/28: SF Gate: DOE: Budget cuts may slow nuclear waste cleanup
• 2013/02/27: P3: NSF and "Sequestration" of the Other Sort
• 2013/03/01: NatureNB: US budget cuts inevitable as science agencies brace for next fight
• 2013/03/01: ScienceInsider: Few Low Grades at DOE Science Facilities as U.S. Prepares to Set Priorities
• 2013/02/27: MoJo: 6 Ways the Sequester Will Mess Up the Environment
  National parks, food inspection, and clean-energy development are just a few of the programs that will take a major hit.
• 2013/02/25: UCSUSA:B: Will Clean Energy Research and Development Be Sequestered?
  

  ALEC is running a concerted campaign to kill state based renewable energy standards:

• 2013/03/01: TP:JR: Kansas Legislature Rejects Koch-Backed Effort To Chip Away At Renewable Energy Standards
• 2013/02/27: MWEN: Bills target renewable energy standards in three states
  

  The Bipartisan Policy Center released a report on energy policy this week:

• 2013/02/27: BPC: [links to pdfs] America's Energy Resurgence: Sustaining Success, Confronting Challenges
• 2013/03/01: MWEN: Group says U.S. energy policy 'like an orchestra without a conductor'
  To achieve true energy security, the United States badly needs a single federal energy policy and a new White House council to make it happen, retired Marine Corps General Jim Jones said this week at the annual conference of the Advanced Research Projects Agency -- Energy (ARPA-E). The recommendation was just one part of a comprehensive overhaul of federal energy policy that the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a Beltway think tank Jones helps run, called for in a report released Wednesday.
• 2013/03/01: CNN: America has an energy boom. Now what? [BPC]
  

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

• 2013/02/28: Guardian(UK): IPCC urges Obama to raise awareness of science behind climate change
• 2013/02/28: Guardian(UK): Environmentalists still waiting for Obama to act on climate change
• 2013/02/25: ICN: Obama's Plan To Fund Clean Cars with Oil Royalties Faces Tough Test
  Some see the president's plan as an opportunity to expand drilling to protected public lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• 2013/02/24: GLaden: Obama's decision on the Keystone Pipeline IS a legacy making or breaking thing
  

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2013/03/01: ICN: Federal Agency Undermining State Offshore Wind Plans, Backers Say
• 2013/03/01: Grist: Sorry, Michelle, but cheerleading isn't enough to make Big Food change
• 2013/02/28: Grist: How the USDA plans to plant around climate change
• 2013/02/28: TP:JR: As Arctic Sea Ice Recedes, NOAA Must Chart All New Water Routes
• 2013/02/27: TP:JR: The Right Way to Curb Power Plant Emissions
• 2013/02/26: USGS: Stay Current on Your Rivers with USGS WaterNow
• 2013/02/25: TheHill:e2W: Utility settles with EPA, agrees to stop burning coal at three sites
  The utility giant American Electric Power (AEP) will stop burning coal at three power plants by 2015 under a settlement agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), several states and a handful of environmental and civil groups.
• 2013/02/25: SciAm:Obs: ARPA-E Summit Reveals U.S. Energy Future
  

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2013/02/27: TheHill:e2W: Sen. Murkowski maintains hold threat for Interior nominee [Sally Jewell]
• 2013/02/25: CSW: Congress re-boots on climate, Pt. 2: House Democrats' actions in an inhospitable arena
  

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2013/03/01: BBerg: Lobbying Flurry Precedes U.S. Vote on Fukushima Rules
  A proposed requirement that U.S. nuclear-power plants add $20 million devices to prevent radiation leaks, one of the costliest recommendations stemming from meltdowns in Japan two years ago, has attracted a flurry of last-minute lobbying. The U.S. nuclear industry opposes the rule, which would require almost a third of the nation's reactors to install a special filter on vents designed to prevent an explosive buildup of gases. Exelon Corp. (EXC), which owns more U.S. reactors than any other company, estimates each filter would cost $20 million, meaning the Chicago-based company could end up paying $220 million to equip its units.
• 2013/02/25: Reuters: US CEOs [Business Roundtable] push for expanded access to US energy bounty [ie. federal lands]
• 2013/02/25: USAToday: Keystone is responsible oil sands development by Alberta premier, Alison Redford
  

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

• 2013/03/01: Resilience: Programmable Permaculture
• 2013/03/01: Resilience: How the coop movement can help us win together
• 2013/03/01: RWER: The Land, Labour and Capital bank
• 2013/02/28: P3: The Free Market Case for World Government
• 2013/02/28: Resilience: How can we link monetary systems to the natural world?
• 2013/02/28: CCurrents: The Economy: Under New Ownership - Cooperatives
• 2013/02/27: SciAm:CS: Seeing the Blue Marble for the First Time
• 2013/02/26: Resilience: What kind of economy says OK to tar sands oil?
• 2013/03/02: NakedCapitalism: Environmentalists Need to Make Being Green Keynesian
  

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

• 2013/02/26: CRI: China's Unbalanced Sex Ratio and its Ripple Effect
• 2013/02/26: BBC: Maldives girl gets 100 lashes for pre-marital sex
  A 15-year-old rape victim has been sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex, court officials said.
• 2013/02/24: NBF: Zubrin on Green Antihumanism and Paul Ehrlich repeats call for more Abortion and Birth control
  

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2013/03/01: Guardian(UK): Apocalypse? No. But unless we change tack, the planet is running out of time
• 2013/02/25: CCurrents: Earth Is Dying, Yet Climate And Forest Movements Lack Urgency And Substance
  

  How do the media measure up?

• 2013/02/26: KSJT: Time Magazine: Parallel News Evolution, or why US deficit is like global warming
• 2013/02/27: SkS: George Will - Still Recycling Classic Climate Change Myths for The Washington Post by dana1981
• 2013/02/28: TP:JR: Fox News Mocks German Solar Power, But It's Still A Winning Strategy
• 2013/03/01: DD: Antiscience blogs capture the Science category in annual Weblog Awards - 13 out of 17 finalists are climate denialists...
• 2013/03/01: SkS: Why SkS withdrew from the Bloggies
• 2013/03/01: Grist: New York Times kills its 'Green' blog
• 2013/03/01: Grist: A defense of Keystone protesters from the dark heart of the MSM
• 2013/03/01: CJR: NYT cancels Green blog -- No explanation from editors following surprise announcement
• 2013/02/27: FAIR: Forget Objectivity-Can We Have a Fact-Based Media?
• 2013/03/01: DeSmogBlog: New York Times Shuts Down Popular Green Energy & Environment Blog
• 2013/03/01: Guardian(UK): Climate sceptics 'capture' the Bloggies' science category
• 2013/02/25: KSJT: A Forbes columnist slams US press outlets for confusing old military A-bomb stuff with nuclear power waste
• 2013/02/28: AIMN: Where the Truth Goes to Die
• 2013/02/25: GReadfearn: Climate change, the New World Order and spam-weary journalists
  

  The Gore activists are seeking to enable social media for snappy answers:

• 2013/03/02: PSinclair: Reality Drop. The Game Where You, Reality, and the Climate Win
• 2013/03/01: SkS: Reality Drop - using social media to rapidly respond to climate misinformation
• 2013/02/28: Grist: Al Gore's 'Reality Drop' gamifies climate news commenting
  

  Here is something for your library:

• 2012/06/: HOAP: Open Access (the book)
• 2013/02/24: BlogCritics: [Book Review] _Earth Masters: Playing God with the Climate_ by Clive Hamilton
  

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2013/02/27: CChallenge: Explaining recent global warming's impacts on weather
• 2013/02/27: WtD: Hot planet - great free BBC documentary on what a 3 degree world may look like
• 2013/02/28: PSinclair: New Video: Permafrost -- the Tipping Time Bomb
• 2013/03/01: CSM: 'A Place at the Table' makes a persuasive case for why millions are going without food
• 2013/03/01: TheCanadian: 'Heartwood' Explores Clash Between Different Visions for Future of Forestry
• 2013/02/24: PSinclair: The Making of a Classic Climate Graph
  

  As for podcasts:

• 2013/03/02: CBC:Q&Q: (mp3) Ancient Peruvian Civilization Fueled by Corn * Permafrost Melting in the Sunlight
  

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2013/02/28: Grist: ExxonMobil wins and regular folks lose in $1 billion pollution ruling
• 2013/02/25: Salon: Land grab cheats North Dakota tribes out of $1 billion, suits allege
  And is the federal government culpable for failing in its legal obligation to ensure the tribes got a fair deal?
• 2013/03/02: CCP: Appeals court ruling determines polar bears will retain 'threatened' listing
• 2013/02/26: Reuters: U.S. legal action sought over Shell drillship violations
• 2013/02/26: RTCC: Tea Party prepares for last stand against climate action
• 2013/02/25: AutoBG: Fraudster turned non-existent biofuel into luxury cars, sentenced to 12 years
• 2013/02/: Oyez: Bowman v. Monsanto
  

  It looks like this BP trial over the Gulf oil spill is going to take a while, a long while:

• 2013/03/01: BBerg: BP Seeks to Block U.S. Access to Lawyer Spill-Rate Files
  BP Plc, on trial in New Orleans federal court for the biggest U.S. offshore oil spill in history, asked a federal judge to block a government request to make public internal communications with the company's lawyers.
• 2013/03/01: BBerg: Transocean Claims BP Prolonged Spill by Hiding Flow Rate
• 2013/02/28: BBC: BP has been accused of disregarding evidence during drilling that the Macondo oil well was unstable
• 2013/02/28: CBC: BP internal probe into spill had limited access
  An internal BP probe of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico didn't explore whether upper-level management had a role in causing the disaster because investigators didn't have access to its partners' employees and records, a BP executive testified Thursday at a trial designed to assign blame to the companies.
• 2013/02/28: BBerg: BP's Spill Probe Didn't Focus on Management, Witness Says
  BP's internal investigation of the fatal explosion and oil spill at its Gulf of Mexico Macondo well didn't focus on whether management-system failures contributed to the disaster, an executive testified.
• 2013/02/28: Grist: On the ground at the BP Gulf oil spill trial
• 2013/02/28: Reuters: BP oil spill probe did not address cost overruns: executive
• 2013/02/28: USAToday: BP trial's first week offers glimpse of long fight
• 2013/02/27: CBC: Former BP CEO Hayward makes brief appearance at oil spill trial
• 2013/02/27: Grist: BP testifies: We knew about 'big risk' of explosion
• 2013/02/27: OilChange: BP's $9 Billion Spill Tax Scam
• 2013/02/26: CCurrents: BP Puts Profits Over Safety, Says US Attorney
• 2013/02/27: BBC: BP: Gulf of Mexico oil spill 'shared responsibility'
  A senior BP executive has told a US court that the oil giant was not solely responsible for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Rig operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton must also bear portions of the blame for the explosion and resulting spill, Lamar McKay said.
• 2013/02/27: WSWS: BP civil trial opens
• 2013/02/26: Reuters: First spill trial witness: BP put cost cuts over safety
  BP Plc fostered a culture that put cost-cutting over safety before the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a noted forensic engineer said in the first day of testimony in the federal civil trial centered on the disaster. "There is ample evidence of intense pressure within the system to save time and money," said Bob Bea, co-founder of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at the University of California, Berkeley. "With stress and pressure come sacrifices to safety."
• 2013/02/26: CBC: BP gulf spill trial witness says profits put above safety
• 2013/02/26: TP:JR: Trial Starts for BP's Deepwater Horizon Clean Water Act Violations
• 2013/02/26: OilChange: "BP was blinded by greed"
• 2013/02/25: CSM: Deepwater Horizon oil spill trial begins. How much will BP pay?
• 2013/02/25: RT: Billions at stake: US and BP clash in court over Gulf oil spill
• 2013/02/25: Guardian(UK): Deepwater trial: US lawyers say BP ignored warnings on 'well from hell'
• 2013/02/25: Guardian(UK): BP Deepwater judge warns of 'lengthy trial' as proceedings begin
• 2013/02/25: Grist: Multibillion dollar question: How gross was BP's negligence?
• 2013/02/25: OilChange: "Overwhelming evidence that BP is grossly negligent"
• 2013/02/24: BBC: BP and Gulf states set for trial over oil spill
  BP is set to begin a civil trial over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill that became the US's worst environmental disaster. The UK oil giant will be pitted against the US states that were affected by the spill and the Department of Justice. It faces the biggest civil fine in history. It comes after BP agreed in November to pay $4.5bn (£2.9bn) to settle criminal charges relating to the spill. The trial is to be held in New Orleans. The trial will determine the causes of the spill, and assign responsibility to the parties involved, including BP, contractor Halliburton, rig operator Transocean, and Cameron, which manufactured the blowout preventer meant to stop oil leaks.
• 2013/02/24: Guardian(UK): BP and Justice Department try for deal ahead of Deepwater Horizon trial
  With trial over 2010 disaster set to begin in New Orleans on Monday, government said to offer $16bn deal to settle claims
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/03/01: NakedCapitalism: Peak Oil, The Shale Boom and our Energy Future: Interview with Dave Summers
  [...]
  Dr. Summers discusses:
  • Why new drilling techniques aren't enough to put peak oil off
  • Why the shale revolution will not lead to energy independence
  • Why the potential of nuclear energy isn't being realized
  • Why 'plan B' for Keystone isn't beneficial to the US
  • Why we should be worried about the South China Sea and the Middle East
  • How low natural gas prices cannot be sustained
  • Why Europe's shale future is still indeterminate
  • Why the coal industry's days aren't necessarily numbered
  • Why geothermal energy has the greatest potential
  • How media manipulation figures in to the climate debate
  • Why nuclear fusion remains a fantasy in our lifetimes and beyond
• 2013/02/28: Grist: The era of energy dinosaurs is coming to an end
  [...]
  Here, in capsule form, is the shift in perspective [Bloomberg New Energy Finance chief executive, Michael] Liebreich urges for those making decisions in today's energy markets:

  This is the reality of the world's energy transition: it is dynamic, complex, unpredictable and fraught with risk. And it is among these shifting sands that energy decision-makers must plant their feet. Not surprisingly, perhaps, some choose to cling to old certainties, heuristics that worked fine during a long period of strategy stability: demand stimulation, baseload-plus-peak, centralisation, scale, vertical integration, dispatch management, control, confidentiality. But a shifting environment means increasingly replacing dinosaur heuristics with mammal heuristics: efficiency, flexibility, responsiveness, open data, transparency, coalitions.

• 2013/02/26: Grist: Climate change could kill big U.S. reservoirs
• 2013/02/27: Resilience: Can we live again in 1964's energy world? [Vaclav Smil profile]
• 2013/02/27: Tyee: Can We Live again in 1964's Energy World?
  We must engineer a return to that era's lower usage, says expert Vaclav Smil. Second in a series.
• 2013/02/26: Grist: Blazing tires will no longer power Illinois homes
• 2013/02/25: ERabett: Wedgies
• 2013/02/25: TP:JR: Wind, Solar, Biomass Provide All New U.S. Electrical Generating Capacity In January 2013
• 2013/02/25: SciAm:Obs: ARPA-E Summit Reveals U.S. Energy Future
• 2013/02/25: Grist: The next big thing in energy: Decentralization
  

  What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?

• 2013/03/01: RTCC: Shell: Gas can cut emissions faster than renewables
  Gas will provide a quicker path to reducing emissions than a future that pursues renewable energy, according to a report published by Shell on Thursday.
• 2013/03/01: RT: Solar power can outshine oil in a few decades - Shell
• 2013/03/01: PSinclair: Sign of things to Come. In China - Wind Surpasses Nuclear in Energy Production
• 2013/02/28: AllGov: Big Energy Firm Agrees to Replace Coal-Burning Plants with Wind and Solar Operations
  In what's been described as a major indication that coal, for domestic energy use, is slowly on the way out, one of the nation's largest utilities has agreed to shutter three of its coal-fired power plants as part of a legal settlement. American Electric Power (AEP) will stop using coal by 2015 at power plants in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. It intends to replace the energy produced by the plants with new wind and solar investments in Indiana and Michigan.
• 2013/02/28: RTCC: Libya solar potential six times larger than oil reserves
• 2013/02/27: TP:JR: Forget The Tar Sands: How Canadian Hydropower Can Help America
  

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

• 2013/03/02: CCurrents: The End Of The Shale Bubble?
• 2013/02/28: EurActiv: Germany moves to allow [fracking] controversial shale gas drilling
  Germany, a country struggling hard to find energy resources to replace nuclear power, has taken a step towards allowing the tapping of shale gas via hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a practice contested by the opposition and public opinion.
• 2013/02/28: CSM: Water: the big issue for fracking
• 2013/02/28: RT: Fracking lobbyists try to 'withdraw' fraudulent, failed petition
• 2013/02/25: TP:JR: Fracking Bubble? Report Warns Shale Gas And Oil Won't Solve Energy Crunch
• 2013/02/26: Grist: Pro-fracking petition with fake signatures embarrasses gas association
• 2013/02/25: DeSmogBlog: Sand Land: Minnesota Mayor and Fracking Industry Lobbyist Resigns
• 2013/02/23: ProPublica: Land Grab Cheats North Dakota Tribes Out of $1 Billion, Suits Allege
  

  On the coal front:

• 2013/02/28: RTCC: The UK's use of coal increased by 32.5% in 2012, according to the latest statistics released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change
• 2013/02/26: USGS: USGS Estimates 162 Billion Short Tons of Recoverable Coal in the Powder River Basin
• 2013/02/25: TheHill:e2W: Utility settles with EPA, agrees to stop burning coal at three sites
  

  On the gas and oil front:

• 2013/03/01: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Dated Brent Spot....110.40
  WTI Cushing Spot.....90.68
• 2013/03/02: BBC: Second leak at Cormorant Alpha platform
  A North Sea oil platform has been partially evacuated for the second time this year after another oil leak was detected. The Cormorant Alpha platform and its pipeline infrastructure were shut down after the leak was found in one of its legs during a routine inspection at 09:40. About 70 of the 145 staff on board have been removed from the platform.
• 2013/03/01: BBerg: CNOOC Said to Cede Control of Nexen's U.S. Gulf Assets
  CNOOC Ltd., China's largest offshore oil and natural gas producer, was barred from controlling Gulf of Mexico assets under U.S. terms for approving its $15.1 billion purchase of Nexen Inc., people familiar with the matter said. Through its takeover of Calgary-based Nexen, CNOOC acquired about 200 deep-water leases in the Gulf with reserves equivalent to about 205 million barrels of oil, one of the largest holdings in the Gulf, according to Nexen's website. The state-owned Chinese oil explorer surrendered operating control of those assets to quell U.S. national security concerns, said two people familiar with the agreement who asked not to be named because the terms aren't public. CNOOC will still own the assets, according to the people. Patti Lewis, a spokeswoman for Nexen, declined to comment on the specifics of the CFIUS approval. Steven MacKinnon, a spokesman for Cnooc based in Ottawa, also declined to comment.
• 2013/03/01: Grist: As BP battles in court over Deepwater Horizon, oil spills are happening all over the place
• 2013/02/28: NBF: U.S. crude oil production tops 7 million barrels per day in December 2012, highest since December 1992
• 2013/02/25: TMoS: The Hard Truth About Unconventional Fossil Fuel
• 2013/02/25: EarlyWarning: Non-OPEC Liquid Fuel Production Flat in 2011-2012
• 2013/02/25: SciAm:PI: Export Shale Revolution Rather than Gas
• 2013/02/24: Resilience: The questionable logic of U.S. natural gas exports
  

  Regarding oil and the economy:

• 2013/02/28: CSM: Why globalization is energy intensive and wreaks havoc on oil prices
• 2013/02/27: EarlyWarning: National Breakdown of Recent Oil Supply Flatness
  [...]
  So, the question of how much supplies go up or down in 2013 is likely to turn on how much the forces of entropy and political chaos affecting oil producing countries weigh against the profit motive acting to bring more supplies from stable countries.
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/02/28: ICN: Gas Boom Projected to Grow for Decades
• 2013/02/27: GreenGrok: Shale Gas and Tight Oil: Boom? Bust? Or Just a Petering Out?
  

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2013/02/27: Eureka: Estimates reduce amount of additional land available for biofuel production
• 2013/02/26: UN: Small farmers at risk of being excluded from biofuel schemes, warns UN agency
• 2013/02/26: AutoBG: Colorado ethanol producer Front Range Energy moves from corn to woody biomass
• 2013/02/25: EurActiv: Historical studies shore up proof of indirect biofuels emissions
  Projections that feedstock-based biofuels will indirectly cause net greenhouse gas emissions in the future have been confirmed by preliminary results from two new studies of past land use change. If the papers' results remain unchanged by the peer review process, they will significantly strengthen the case for bringing forward a review into whether indirect land use change (ILUC) factors should be included in EU legislation.
• 
  

  The answer my friend...:

   

• 2013/02/25: Harcard:SEAS: Rethinking wind power
• 2013/02/26: NBF: Harvard study shows wind power will have a lot of trouble scaling beyond a few terawatts
• 2013/02/25: ERL: Are global wind power resource estimates overstated? by Amanda S Adams & David W Keith
• 2013/02/25: TP:JR: Biofuels Policy Helping Destroy U.S. Grasslands At Fastest Rate Since 1930s, Boosting Threat of Dust-Bowlification
  

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2013/02/28: TreeHugger: Pay as you go solar power systems provide clean, affordable lighting in Kenya
• 2013/02/25: TreeHugger: Solar-powered cell towers bring off-grid energy to remote communities
• 2013/02/25: GLaden: Is Solar Energy Totally Bogus or Something that Gives Hope?
• 2013/02/25: TP:JR: Solar Energy To Get Boost From Cutting-Edge Clouds Forecasts
• 2013/02/25: AutoBG: Honda, SolarCity will partner on solar-energy installments [w/video]
• 2013/02/24: Eureka: UC Santa Barbara scientists develop a whole new way of harvesting energy from the sun
• 2013/02/25: OilDrum: The Price of Solar Power
  

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2013/03/02: EneNews: Experts discuss domino effect of further collapses at Chernobyl - not 'expected' - Officials say temporary cover has to be put over holes in roof and walls
• 2013/03/01: EneNews: Top Economist [Jeremy Rifkin]: Nuclear power is over - "Frankly I think from a business perspective it's over, I think it's over... here's the situation" (video)
• 2013/03/02: APR: IAEA Backs Fast Breeder Reactors
• 2013/03/01: Eureka: US may face inevitable nuclear power exit
  In a 2012 report, the Obama administration announced that it was "jumpstarting" the nuclear industry. Because of the industry's long history of permitting problems, cost overruns, and construction delays, financial markets have been wary of backing new nuclear construction for decades. The supposed "nuclear renaissance" ballyhooed in the first decade of this century never materialized. And then came Fukushima, a disaster that pushed countries around the world to ask: Should nuclear power be part of the energy future? In the third and final issue in a series focused on nuclear exits, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, turns its attention to the United States and looks at whether the country's business-as-usual approach may yet lead to a nuclear phase-out for economic reasons.
• 2013/03/01: PSinclair: Georgia [Vogtle] Nuclear Plant to Take Longer, Cost More
• 2013/02/28: TreeHugger: China is building 29 nuclear reactors, 40% of the world's total
• 2013/02/28: APR: Babcock & Wilcox Refutes Mischaracterization of Small Modular Reactor Program - a press release
• 2013/02/27: APR: SCE Responds to Latest NRC Requests 2/26
  ...a press release from Southern California Edison, regarding the ongoing San Onofre situation.
• 
  

  Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

   

• 2013/03/03: EneNews: 67 tanks are 'suspected leakers' at U.S. nuclear site - "The stuff inside melts the instruments... eats rubber and plastic" (video)
• 2013/03/01: TreeHugger: Toxic nuclear waste leaking from Washington dump
• 2013/02/27: EneNews: Governor [Jay Inslee]: Nuclear waste leaking at an estimated 1,000 gallons a year - "No available technology to plug the leaks" at Hanford
• 2013/02/26: CBS: Nuclear waste leak in Wash. "scandalous," expert says
• 2013/02/25: KSJT: A Forbes columnist slams US press outlets for confusing old military A-bomb stuff with nuclear power waste
• 2013/02/25: CSM: Former Manhattan Project nuclear plant leaking radioactive waste
  

  Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:

• 2013/02/24: NBF: Search for Modifications and Alternatives after the NIF fusion laser missed key milestone
  

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

• 2013/03/01: BBC: Hydrogen's energy promise improves
  A new process for extracting hydrogen from a liquid fuel could sweep aside one obstacle to a "hydrogen economy". Hydrogen produced from renewable resources is a promising source of clean energy, but the gas is difficult to handle and transport. An international team has now published details of an efficient, low-temperature method for generating it from methanol.
• 2013/02/27: NatureN: Liquid storage could make hydrogen a feasible fuel -- Catalyst efficiently recovers the gas from easily stored methanol.
  A process for extracting hydrogen from a liquid fuel could remove one of the biggest hurdles to a 'hydrogen economy', its discoverers say. They have developed a catalyst that harvests the gas from methanol, a liquid fuel that -- unlike hydrogen itself -- can be easily transported and stored.
• 
  

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

   

• 2013/03/01: RTCC: Smart grid investment leaps 7% in 2012
  Global investment in smart grid technologies rose by 7% in 2012 to $13.9 billion according to research from the US-based Worldwatch Institute.
• 2013/03/01: RealEconomics: Better pylons
  

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

• 2013/02/28: TreeHugger: GM planning to make 36,000 Volts this year, 20% more than 2012
• 2013/02/27: AutoBG: GM planning on 20% increase in plug-in hybrid production in 2013
• 2013/02/26: CSM: Tesla Motors CEO says NYT rift cost company millions
• 2013/02/25: TreeHugger: Updated 2013 Hyundai Sonata hybrid has better MPG, a bigger battery, and cheaper price tag
  

  This week in the Gee Whiz File:

• 2013/03/01: TreeHugger: Graphene could offer 60% solar cell efficiency!
• 2013/02/04: UConn: UConn Professor's Patented Technique Key to New Solar Power Technology [nano-antennae]
• 2013/02/27: NBF: Fabrication Progress to Atomic Layer Deposition of solar nanorectennas that could collect solar energy with 70% efficiency
• 2013/02/26: PSinclair: Graphene Breakthrough has Huge Solar Implications
  

  As for Energy Storage:

• 2013/02/27: BBC: Stretchy battery drawn to three times its size
• 2013/02/26: Eureka: Clever battery completes stretchable electronics package
  

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2013/02/26: TreeHugger: How insurance industry can help fight climate change
  

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

• 2013/03/01: TP:JR: February 1 News...
• 2013/02/28: TP:JR: February 28 News...
• 2013/02/27: TP:JR: February 27 News...
• 2013/02/26: TP:JR: February 26 News...
• 2013/02/25: TP:JR: February 25 News...
  

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2013/03/02: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #9 by John Hartz
• 2013/03/02: SkS: 2013 SkS News Bulletin #2: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline by John Hartz
• 2013/02/25: BPA: Will Corn and Soybeans Cover their Input Costs Next Season? Plus, More Agriculture News This Week
  

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2013/02/27: HotWhopper: The Curious Tale of Watts and His Dog
• 2013/02/27: ABC(Au): Monckton urges dancing over global warming
• 2013/02/27: CCP: Hot Topic, NZ: Recursive fraudery: Monckton goes mad in Australia, by Gareth Renowden
• 2013/03/01: NewAnthropocene: Nothing the Right Tell You About Climate Change is True
• 2013/02/28: DeSmogBlog: Climate Change Conspiracy Theorist's Report "A Pile Of Horse Shit" Writes Environment Editor
• 2013/03/01: WtD: Toxic legacies: Malcolm Roberts, his CSIROh! report and the anti-Semitic roots of the "international bankers" conspiracy theory
• 2013/03/03: UKISS: Denier Comment of the Day
• 2013/03/01: Stoat: 1970s cooling, again
• 2013/03/01: HC: Blogosphere Latest - They had weather in the 1970s
• 2013/02/28: CCP: Donors Trust a conduit for Koch and Exxon dirt money used to suppress climate change information
• 2013/02/26: Denialism: What happens when you study conspiracy theories?
  The conspiracy theorists make up conspiracy theories about you!
• 2013/02/26: CDL: Dr David Evans
• 2013/02/26: HotWhopper: A Whopper of a Watt-ism
• 2013/02/24: CCP: "'To quarterback behind the scenes, third-party efforts': the tobacco industry and the Tea Party," by A. Fallin, R. Grana & S. A. Glantz, Tobacco Control; doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815
• 2013/02/24: S&R: [James M.] Taylor attacks his critics instead of correcting his distortions of a peer-reviewed study
• 2013/03/02: DeSmogBlog: Lord Monckton Threatens Climate Scientists, Again
  

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2013/02/28: UnderTheBanyan: Time to join the dots on environmental murders
• 2013/02/27: CPW: Human Rights Watch To Thailand: Investigate Environmentalist's Murder
• 2013/02/27: P3: The Mysterious Appeal of the Single-Event Mantra
• 2013/02/25: P3: Science Meta-Literacy Trumps Literacy
• 2013/02/25: RTCC: Tackling climate change can help end poverty - report
• 2013/02/24: LoE: Life is full of tough choices...but this isn't one of them
  

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

• 2013/02/27: EIJ: Earth Island Journal
• Permaculture Principles
• EcoEarth
• Oxfam: Behind the Brands
• CITES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
• FAO: International Year of the Quinoa IYQ-2013
• Haida Gwaii CoASt: Communities Against Super Tankers
• EPI: Earth Policy Institute
• Farm Subsidy - Explore European Common Agricultural Policy farm subsidy payments
• Do the Math -- Using physics and estimation to assess energy, growth, options - by Tom Murphy
• CCTF: Climate Change Task Force
• Wiki: Chlorofluorocarbon
• ReliefWeb
• EMEP: European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme

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.

"The market is not laying the foundations for an era of unending oil-based prosperity. The market is pushing inexorably toward investment in expensive technologies to extract the last drop of profit through faster depletion of a resource that's guaranteed to run out. If we're going to invest in expensive energy technologies, it would be better to pick long-term winners rather than guaranteed losers." -Raymond Pierrehumbert

• Global Warming Links
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• H.E. Taylor (homepage)