Another Week of GW News, September 30, 2007

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H.E.Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's GW news roundup
(skip to bottom)

• Top Stories, African Floods, Melting Arctic, Greenland, Ward Hunt Lake, Polls, CDP
• Meetings, UN, Clinton Initiative, Washington, Retrospectives
• Hurricanes, Ozone, Sea Levels, ENSO, Satellites, DSCOVR
• Impacts, Rainforests, Wacky Weather, WildFires, Floods & Droughts, Food vs. Biofuel, Agro-Corps
• Mitigation, Transportation, Sequestration, Iron Hypothesis, Ocean Pipes
• Journals, Misc. Science
• Kyoto, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics, International, Security America, Britain, Europe, Australia, China, Canada
• Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Courts
• Energy, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Yucca, Efficiency, Cars, Business, Insurance, Carbon Lobby
• The Usual, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion
• .sig

Here's a chuckle for ya:

• 2007/09/26: ERabett: (cartoon - ?) Pearls Before Swine
• 2007/09/25: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Reaching Consensus

  The floods in Africa are the major current disaster:

• 2007/09/28: AfricaAsia: Africa flood relief needs surge in three years: Red Cross
  The Red Cross said Friday that it had observed a "worrying" eightfold increase since 2004 in the number of African flood disasters it has to deal with. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the number of floods in Africa where the movement provided relief aid jumped from five in 2004 to 32 in 2006. By mid September, with widespread flooding stretching across more than 20 countries from west to east Africa, the number of floods on the continent that mobilised Red Cross aid so far this year stood at 42.
• 2007/09/24: AllAfrica: Sudan: Flood Victims Mount By 100,000 to Well Over Half Million, UN Reports
• 2007/09/28: BBC: Flooded Togo's urgent aid appeal
  Togo has issued an urgent international appeal for food and medicine to help deal with flooding that has affected almost half the countries in Africa
• 2007/09/29: WSWS: Devastating floods sweep across Africa
• 2007/09/28: inel: Togo's MayDay!
• 2007/09/28: PlanetArk: Sudan's Floods Claim 150 Lives, US$300 Mln Lost
• 2007/09/28: AFP: Thousands in Africa wait for aid amid catastrophic floods
  Hundreds of thousands of people awaited desperately needed relief supplies and faced the threat of epidemics on Friday as the death toll climbed in Africa's worst floods in three decades. At least 300 have died in the flooding since heavy rains began sweeping across the continent two months ago, according to figures based on reports by hospital, government and humanitarian sources and compiled by AFP. With nearly half of Africa's countries hit, the cost of the damage, expected to be huge, was only beginning to emerge
• 2007/09/26: TerraDaily: Food crisis could loom after Africa floods: Red Cross
• 2007/09/25: TerraDaily: Africa flood crisis deepens
• 2007/09/25: AllAfrica:BuaNews: Floods Hit 1.5 Million in 20 African States
• 2007/09/25: UN: UN appeals to aid more than 1 million African flood victims fall on deaf ears
• 2007/09/24: UN: Flood victims in Sudan mount by 100,000 to well over half million, UN reports
• 2007/09/24: TerraDaily: Africa flooding spreads, 22 countries hit: UN
• 2007/09/24: Yahoo: Is Global Warming Drowning Africa?
• 2007/09/25: IRNA: Floods hit 1.5 million in 20 African states
• 2007/09/25: AFP: Africa flood crisis deepens
  Fresh rainfalls and slow relief have deepened the humanitarian crisis caused by record floods in Africa which have affected more than 1.5 million people and killed at least 300, aid agencies warned Tuesday. The worst floods in three decades have now affected 22 countries, displacing hundreds of thousands and starkly raising the risk of epidemics since the deluge hit parts of the continent in July.

The Arctic melt continues to get a lot of comment:

• 2007/09/29: People's Daily: Arctic thaw may be reaching 'tipping point'
• 2007/09/29: Tamino: Polar Time
• 2007/09/27: TerraDaily: Arctic Heat Wave Stuns Climate Change Researchers
• 2007/09/28: TerraDaily: Remarkable Drop In Arctic Sea Ice Raises Questions
• 2007/09/28: FergusB: 2007 sea ice; some raw numbers
• 2007/09/28: CDreams: Reuters: Arctic Thaw May Be at "Tipping Point"
• 2007/09/27: NewScientist: Diving polar bear confirms Inuit observations
• 2007/09/27: ENN: Impact of Arctic heat wave stuns climate change researchers
• 2007/09/27: Eureka: Arctic ice retreats into uncharted territory - New NASA satellite images show record loss in 2007 Arctic ice
• 2007/09/26: PhysOrg: 'Remarkable' Drop in Arctic Sea Ice Raises Questions
• 2007/09/26: SMH: Siberian thaw could speed up global warming - Parts of the permafrost in Russia's northern wilderness are melting.
• 2007/09/25: TruthOut: As Race for Oil-Rich Arctic Heats Up, Inuit Stake Their Claim, Too - Indigenous to the region, the Inuit want a "meaningful voice" in the territory dispute
• 2007/09/24: Yahoo: Multiple Studies Reveal Dire Meltdown in Arctic
• 2007/09/24: ClimateP: Arctic Ice shrinks by an Alaska plus a Texas
• 2007/09/19: Grist: Siberian Tusky - Siberian permafrost melt threatens to accelerate climate change, reveals mammoth bones
• 2007/09/24: DymaxionWorld: Arctic potpourri

  NASA has been monitoring melting Greenland snow:

• 2007/09/26: Stoat: Melting in Greenland
• 2007/09/26: TerraDaily: NASA Finds Greenland Snow Melting Hit Record High In High Places
• 2007/09/25: PhysOrg: NASA finds Greenland snow melting hit record high in high places
• 2007/09/25: NASA: NASA Finds Greenland Snow Melting Hit Record High in High Places
• 2007/09/25: JFleck: More Melting [Greenland]
• 2007/09/25: Eureka: NASA finds Greenland snow melting hit record high in high places

  Ward Hunt Lake on Ellesmere Island is showing surprising signs:

• 2007/09/28: TerraDaily: North America's Northernmost Lake Affected By Global Warming
• 2007/09/27: PhysOrg: Warming linked to 'unprecedented' algae growth in Arctic [Ward Hunt] lake
• 2007/09/27: Yahoo: Warming linked to 'unprecedented' algae growth in Arctic [Ward Hunt] lake
• 2007/09/27: CanWest: Arctic [Ward Hunt] lake becoming hospitable to life - It's another indication of warming: scientists
• 2007/09/26: CBC: Northernmost lake shows signs of global warming
• 2007/09/27: CanWest: Wakening northern [Ward Hunt] lake sounds dire warning - 8,450-year-old sediment shows burst of life since 1800; climate change blamed
• 2007/09/26: Eureka: North America's northernmost lake [Ward Hunt Lake on Ellesmere Island] affected by global warming
• 2007/09/26: QueensU: Arctic heat wave stuns climate change researchers
  Unprecedented warm temperatures in the High Arctic this past summer were so extreme that researchers with a Queen's University-led climate change project have begun revising their forecasts. "Everything has changed dramatically in the watershed we observed," reports Geography professor Scott Lamoureux, the leader of an International Polar Year project announced yesterday in Nunavut by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. "It's something we'd envisioned for the future - but to see it happening now is quite remarkable."

Several polls were released this week:

• 2007/09/28: SciDaily: Americans Remain Pessimistic About The Environment, Survey Finds
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: American spirits - New poll shows Americans believe in global warming, want to do something about it
• 2007/09/: Yale: American Opinions on Global Warming: Summary
• 2007/09/27: inel: BBC World Service survey on climate change attitudes
• 2007/09/27: WarmingLaw: Public Opinion Goes Green
• 2007/09/27: DeSmogBlog: New poll: 68% of Americans support aggressive international climate treaty
• 2007/09/26: PhysOrg: [US] Poll: Many Pessimistic About Environment
• 2007/09/25: CDreams: Reuters: Global Majority Wants Action on Climate Change
• 2007/09/25: PhysOrg: BBC survey: Humans cause global warming [PIPA]
• 2007/09/25: GristMill: Do something already - Poll finds people ready for action on climate change
• 2007/09/25: DeSmogBlog: Most people now believe man is causing global warming [PIPA]
• 2007/09/25: PlanetArk: Global Majority Wants Action on Climate Change [PIPA]
• 2007/09/24: ThinkP: Nine out of 10 [PIPA]
• 2007/09/24: PIPA: Global Poll: All Countries Need to Take Major Steps on Climate Change
• 2007/09/25: BBC: Large majorities in many countries now believe human activity is causing global warming, a BBC World Service poll suggests
• 2007/09/25: Reuters: Global majority wants action on climate change
  Almost two-thirds of the world's people say there must be urgent action to tackle global warming, a poll for the BBC World Service showed on Tuesday. Overall, 65 percent of the 22,000 people polled in 21 countries said there was a need "to take major steps very soon" ranging from 91 percent in Spain to 37 percent in India
• 2007/09/24: BBC: Global warming leaves Russians cold
  Over half of Russians asked about global warming say they haven't heard much about it, according to a BBC World Service poll of 22,000 people in 21 countries

The Carbon Disclosure Project has released a report:

• 2007/09/25: HillHeat: Carbon Disclosure Project Launches Fifth Annual Report
• 2007/09/25: SciDaily: Global Corporate Climate Change [Carbon Disclosure Project] Report Released
• 2007/09/24: Eureka: Global corporate climate change report released [Carbon Disclosure Project]

  The big news of the week has been the UN, Clinton & Washington climate meetings. First some lead up:

• 2007/09/24: BBC: World leaders at climate summit
  Leaders of 80 countries are expected to attend a special UN meeting in New York to discuss the effects of global warming and the ways to combat it. The meeting comes just days after scientists reported that more Arctic ice melted this year than ever before. The UN climate chief says a breakthrough is essential. US President George W Bush will not be present...
• 2007/09/24: CBC: UN chief seeks 'breakthrough' at climate-change summit
  The largest-ever political summit on climate change got under way in New York City on Monday, with the head of the United Nations thanking the dozens of world leaders in attendance for sharing his concern about the environment. Nearly 80 heads of countries gathered at UN headquarters for the one-day summit to discuss ways to curb climate change. Leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, spoke about what their countries are doing to combat the problem and what new measures can be taken in the future. The talks are a prelude to the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December, where leaders are to forge a new deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
• 2007/09/24: AFP: Future generations will judge us on climate change: UN chief [Ban Ki-moon]
• 2007/09/25: ClimateP: Top 10 Signs your Climate Summit is Just a PR Stunt
• 2007/09/24: ClimateP: What to listen for during "Global Warming Week"
• 2007/09/24: TruthOut: Global Warming Meetings Put Focus on US Role
• 2007/09/25: GristMill: Bush's climate summit: What's needed
• 2007/09/24: KSJT: Lots of Ink: UN set to talk climate (no Bush), so is White House (Bush in charge)
• 2007/09/23: ClimateP: Bush to World: Nothing up my Sleeve
• 2007/09/24: GristMill: Agree to disagree - Bush parallel climate meetings intended to avoid binding treaty
• 2007/09/24: WaPo: Bush Steps Out Front on Climate Issue - But No Policy Shift Is Planned as Nations Begin Debate on Post-Kyoto Accord
  Amid a mounting sense of urgency about the need for action to slow climate change, President Bush this week will be playing what is, for him, an unusually prominent role in high-level diplomatic meetings on how to confront global warming. What he will not do, officials said, is chart any shift in policies that have put him at odds with much of the world on the issue.

The UN meeting:

• 2007/09/24: Xinhuanet: UN chief calls for global framework to tackle climate change
  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that national action alone is insufficient in tackling climate change. "Given the nature and magnitude of the challenge, national action alone is insufficient," Ban told an unprecedented summit on climate change at the UN Headquarters in New York. "That is why we need to confront climate change within a global framework, one that guarantees the highest level of international cooperation," he said. He pointed out that the UN climate process is the recognized appropriate forum for negotiating global action, and stressed that"our goal must be nothing short of a real breakthrough in Bali," where the UN Climate Change Conference is to be held in December 2007
• 2007/09/24: Reuters: Schwarzenegger urges U.N. to move on climate change
• 2007/09/24: Globe&Mail: Harper proposes less rigid climate-change plan
• 2007/09/24: UNDispatch: Putting Today in Context [UN meeting]
• 2007/09/28: inel: Climate change actions define global legacy ~ UN S-G @ HLE
• 2007/09/26: FTimes: Gore calls for "global Marshall plan"
• 2007/09/27: ArabNews: Tackling Climate Change
• 2007/09/26: Reuters: Gore: Bush should follow Reagan's lead on climate
• 2007/09/26: WaPo: World Leaders Press U.S. To Act on Climate Change
• 2007/09/25: SwissInfo: Governments urged to act on global warming
  Swiss Environment Minister Moritz Leuenberger has joined global leaders in calling for urgent action on climate change at a United Nations summit in New York.
• 2007/09/25: DerSpiegel: Merkel Speaks out at UN Climate Summit - Fighting Climate Change 'Makes Economic Sense'
• 2007/09/25: NSU: UN climate talks - Some 80 heads of state gathered in New York City on Monday to discuss climate change.
• 2007/09/26: SMH: Global co-operation vital says Ban in dig at US
• 2007/09/25: Guardian(UK): Benn calls on US to adopt binding aims on emissions
• 2007/09/26: Guardian(UK): For all this talk, still we head steadfastly for catastrophe
  This week's summit on climate change will achieve nothing if rich countries don't finally show some leadership
• 2007/09/25: UN: Climate change solutions must also tackle poverty, Indonesian leader tells UN
• 2007/09/25: UN: Chileà $(Bs (BPresident [Michelle Bachelet] calls for UN Member States to act to stem climate change
• 2007/09/25: UN: General Assembly president urges sustained momentum on climate change
• 2007/09/24: UN: Summit-level dinner on climate change fosters shared commitment - Ban Ki-moon
• 2007/09/24: UN: Meeting at UN, tropical rainforest countries urge action on climate change
• 2007/09/24: UN: Global leaders show will for climate change "breakthrough" - Secretary-General
• 2007/09/24: UN: Joint attack on climate change and poverty needed, Al Gore tells audience at UN
• 2007/09/24: UN: Climate change not just concern of scientists, but of all - UN environment chief [UNEP head, Achim Steiner]
• 2007/09/24: UN: UN climate change expert [IPCC head, Rajendra K. Pachauri] stresses dangers of inaction
• 2007/09/24: UN: UN to offset carbon emissions from landmark high-level climate change meeting
• 2007/09/24: UN: At UN, California governor and Delhi mayor spotlight local climate change measures
• 2007/09/24: UN: Tackling climate change a moral obligation, General Assembly President [Srgjan Kerim] says
• 2007/09/24: UN: Ban Ki-moon convenes largest-ever meeting of global leaders on climate change
• 2007/09/25: PhysOrg: 'Arnie,' 'Al' Push Climate Action
• 2007/09/24: HillHeat: Bloggers at UN Climate Change Event
• 2007/09/25: Stoat: Does Hilary Benn matter?
• 2007/09/25: TerraDaily: The Climate Group Addresses UN During Pivotal Week On Climate Change
• 2007/09/24: TerraDaily: World companies show big interest in climate, US firms lag
• 2007/09/25: TerraDaily: Ecuador Takes Leadership Role On Climate Change
  Ecuador's President Rafael Correa presented the Yasuni-ITT Initiative at a United Nations meeting of world leader's on global climate change. This pioneering initiative is an unprecedented proposal by an oil exporting country to leave its largest oil reserve unexploited to contribute to the reduction of global greenhouse gases and to initiate Ecuador's transition toward the world's first truly sustainable economy.
  A key part of this initiative is to avoid oil extraction activities in Yasuni National Park, home to at least two indigenous tribes that live in voluntary isolation and one of the most biodiverse places on earth. Ecuador proposes to leave the nearly one billion barrel ITT oilfield unexploited in order to preserve Yasuni's astounding biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the cultural integrity of its indigenous inhabitants.
  Ecuador is proposing to forgo the revenue from oil production because it believes the value of avoiding climate change and deforestation is of greater value to Ecuador and the planet as a whole.
• 2007/09/25: PlanetArk: UN Climate Change Debate Coins New Jargon
• 2007/09/25: ENN: U.N. chief sees major commitment to climate change
  U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said a one-day high-level meeting on climate change on Monday was a turning point in the battle against global warming. "What I heard today is a major political commitment for a breakthrough in climate change in Bali," Ban said. A meeting scheduled in Bali, Indonesia, for December is aimed at jump-starting talks to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to curb climate-warming emissions
• 2007/09/25: OilChange: UN Boss Criticises Bush Over Climate Forum
  The Bush administration was criticised yesterday for organising an alternative climate change forum, as the United Nations secretary general stressed that the UN is the best place to discuss global measures. "The UN climate process is the appropriate forum for negotiating global action," the UN's Ban Ki-moon, told world leaders and superstars of the climate movement, including the former US vice-president Al Gore and the Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a veiled attack on President George Bush, who called a competing meeting of 16 major economies in Washington later this week
• 2007/09/25: WaPo: U.N. Chief Calls for 'Real Breakthrough' On Climate Change
• 2007/09/24: Yahoo: Gore wants regular summits on global warming
  The world's top leaders should meet every three months, starting next year, until a plan is drawn up to reduce emissions blamed for global warming, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said on Monday
• 2007/09/25: IRNA: Mottaki: Climate change is caused by polluted activities of industrial states
  [Addressing a meeting at the United Nations,] Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said polluted activities of the industrial countries are the main cause of climate change in the world
• 2007/09/25: IRNA: UN to offset carbon emissions from climate change meeting
• 2007/09/25: IRNA: UN climate change expert [IPCC head, Rajendra K. Pachauri] stresses danger of inaction
• 2007/09/25: IRNA: Climate change not just concern of scientists, but of all - UN [UNEP head, Achim Steiner]
• 2007/09/25: IRNA: Tackling climate change a moral obligation, General Assembly president [Srgjan Kerim] says
• 2007/09/25: IRNA: Global leaders show will for climate change breakthrough - Secretary General [Ban Ki-moon]
• 2007/09/24: CSM: U.N. revs up over global warming - The session Monday may be the largest high-level meeting ever on climate change
• 2007/09/25: Guardian(UK): [UK Environment Secretary, Hilary] Benn calls on US to adopt binding aims on emissions
• 2007/09/25: Guardian(UK): [UK PM, Gordon] Brown urges US to accept carbon limits
• 2007/09/25: ABC(Au): UN head urges climate change action
• 2007/09/24: Grist: The Long, Hot Summit - U.N. climate summit kicks off in New York; Bush preps for his own climate meeting in Washington
• 2007/09/24: GristMill: U.N. Climate Summit: Gore goes grim - Gore recites climate woes in speech at U.N.
• 2007/09/24: GristMill: U.N. Climate Summit: Heads of state speechify about mitigation - Leaders of Chile, Austria, Ecuador, and other countries talk about the climate challenge
• 2007/09/23: GristMill: U.N. Climate Summit: Free beer with big shots - Bloggers and U.N. officials chat, don't quite connect
• 2007/09/24: HillHeat: UN Climate Change Conference
• 2007/09/24: TreeHugger: Quote of the Day: Ban Ki-Moon on International Action on Climate Change
• 2007/09/24: TreeHugger: U.N. Climate Klatch Today, Bush Plays Hookey
• 2007/09/24: TreeHugger: Governator's Climate Pep Talk
• 2007/09/24: DeSmogBlog: Canada's Harper evokes "F-word," touts technology at UN summit
• 2007/09/24: Yahoo: Schwarzenegger, Gore add star power to climate meet
• 2007/09/23: CDreams: AP: Bush To Be No-Show At U.N. Climate Summit
• 2007/09/24: SF Gate: Schwarzenegger tells U.N. to move on global warming
• 2007/09/24: UN: The Future in our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change
• 2007/09/23: NYT: Bush to Skip U.N. Talks on Global Warming

  The Clinton Global Initiative meeting:

• 2007/09/26: UNDispatch: Lungs of the World [CGI]
• 2007/09/26: UNDispatch: A Bit More on the Forests [CGI]
• 2007/09/27: UNDispatch: UNF and Foundation Prince Albert II Monaco Team Up to Combat Global Warming [CGI]
• 2007/09/28: TreeHugger: Rupert Murdoch at the Clinton Global Initiative
• 2007/09/28: PlanetArk: Day One of Clinton Summit Sees Over 40 Pledges
• 2007/09/28: PlanetArk: Africa Climate Change Woes Aired at Clinton Summit
• 2007/09/27: EnvFin: [Bill] Clinton sees economic à $(Abo (Bomà $(B i (Bn fighting climate change
• 2007/09/28: ENN: Rainforest Alliance, Gibson, Domtar and Time Inc. Commit to Clinton Global Initiative
• 2007/09/27: ClimateP: Clinton on Kyoto: "It's a very good thing to fail in the right cause."
• 2007/09/27: ClimateP: Bill Clinton vs. The World Bank
• 2007/09/27: ABC(Au): Stars join Clinton's campaign to save the world
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Clinton Global Initiative: The view from China - China's foreign minister talks climate and development
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Clinton Global Initiative: Clinton chats with the press - Bill Clinton wanted a carbon market back in the day, and he still does
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Clinton Global Initiative: A round-up of quotes - Highlights from Brundtland, Zenawi, and Blair; lowlights from Paulson
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Clinton Global Initiative: Climate change and the Third World - Ethiopian leader lays out the real inconvenient truth on climate
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Clinton Global Initiative: Hilarious quotes - Tony Blair on climate guilt and Hank Paulson on knowledge
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Clinton Global Initiative: Blair on political will and economic strength - Tony Blair downplays the importance of political will in the U.S.
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Clinton Global Initiative: Clinton on efficiency Bill Clinton calls for countries to follow Japan's lead
• 2007/09/27: TreeHugger: Clinton Global Initiative Day 2 Begins: Global Framework, Carbon Market Needed
• 2007/09/27: TreeHugger: President Clinton Announces Record Number of Commitments in First 24 Hours, Launches CGI Asia
• 2007/09/27: Google:AP: Clinton Global Initiative Hears Pledges
• 2007/09/26: HuffPo: Thoughts on the Clinton Global Initiative
• 2007/09/26: GristMill: Clinton Global Initiative: Bill and Al, reunited at least - Bill Clinton kicks off annual meeting with big names and big aims
• 2007/09/29: AutoBG: Two new biofuel projects announced at Clinton Global Initiative
• 2007/09/26: TreeHugger: Clinton Global Initiative Opening Session Commitments
• 2007/09/26: ENN: Clinton Global Initiative Begins
• 2007/09/25: ClimateP: Your Ticket to the Clinton Global Initiative

  Bush's Washington meeting:

• 2007/09/29: NYT: At Climate Meeting, Bush Does Not Specify Goals
• 2007/09/28: Turkish Press: Bush gives little ground in battle to halt climate change
• 2007/09/29: PhysOrg: Bush Seeks New Image on Global Warming
• 2007/09/29: Time: Climate Change: Filling the Bush Gap
• 2007/09/29: GWWatch: Bush bashed over vapid climate conference
• 2007/09/29: GWWatch: Emissions reductions - aspirationals miss the binding obvious
• 2007/09/29: People's Daily: Major economies vow to take action on climate change [Wash meeting]
• 2007/09/29: BBC: Bush climate plans spark debate
  A plan by US President George W Bush for countries to set their own targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions has drawn considerable criticism. Some delegates at a meeting of the world's top 16 polluters saw Mr Bush's comments as a US reluctance to commit to binding action on global warming. Officials at the Washington forum said legally-set international targets were the only way to tackle climate change. Mr Bush stressed that combating climate change should not damage the economy. And he again hinted that the US would not commit itself to mandatory CO2 cuts.
• 2007/09/29: Guardian(UK): Europeans angry after Bush climate speech 'charade'
• 2007/09/28: KSJT: BBC, Agence France Presse: At White House, Bush stays his course on greenhouse gas regs
• 2007/09/28: ClimateP: Bush climate speech follows Luntz playbook: "Technology, technology, blah, blah, blah."
• 2007/09/28: BWeek: Bush's Climate Meeting: Talk, But No Action
  The President's summit shows a willingness to take global warming seriously. But don't expect much more than that...
• 2007/09/28: WaPo: With Legacy in Mind, Bush Reassesses His Agenda
• 2007/09/28: Economist: Warming to the environment? George Bush and the UN hold summits
• 2007/09/29: SMH: [Washington] Climate conference a 'failure'
• 2007/09/29: CDreams: Reuters: Bush Draws Fire at Climate Talks
• 2007/09/29: SMH: Europe doubts climate plan without teeth
• 2007/09/28: BBC: Bush seeks flexible CO2 targets
• 2007/09/28: ClimateP: Bush Climate Summit: Greenwashing vs. Myth-Busting
• 2007/09/27: TruthOut: Bush Climate Goals Marked by Bureaucracy
• 2007/09/29: ABC(Au): Bush 'isolated' after climate change talks
  Some of the world's biggest greenhouse polluters took aim at President George W Bush on Friday, calling him "isolated" and questioning his leadership on the problem of global warming
• 2007/09/29: ABC(Au): Bush goes on the attack on climate change
  US President George W Bush has gone on the offensive on climate change, proposing a summit pf major polluters next year to set a long-term global goal for curtting emissions. Mr Bush also endorsed the UN as the final arena for tackling global warming, but gave not an inch of ground to those demanding the United States slap a legally-binding cap on its own massive carbon emissions
• 2007/09/28: GristMill: And then he said that thing that he always says again! Press struggles to write something interesting about vacuous Bush speech
• 2007/09/27: GPUSA: President Bush Going the Wrong Way on Global Warming
• 2007/09/28: inel: The President's greenhouse gas "admissions"
• 2007/09/28: inel: Climate pie [Wash meeting]
• 2007/09/28: Maribo: The "technology-based" approach
• 2007/09/28: FergusB: Does this mean anything?
• 2007/09/28: DeSmogBlog: Bush: "We ain't going to solve global warming overnight!" (So why bother to try?)
• 2007/09/28: DeSmogBlog: Bush tries new spin on global warming, but retains bias for growth over emission controls
• 2007/09/28: DeSmogBlog: Condi Rice: Fight Climate Change Like We Fight Terror!
• 2007/09/27: DeSmogBlog: U.S. hosts climate-change conference and promptly digs in its heels
• 2007/09/28: PlanetArk: US Insists it Supports UN Effort on Climate
• 2007/09/28: PlanetArk: US Climate Talks Draw World's Biggest Polluters
• 2007/09/28: ENN: Bush Under Pressure at Climate Change Conference
• 2007/09/25: Time: The U.N.'s Hot Air on Climate Change
• 2007/09/27: CDreams: Bush Fiddles While World Burns
• 2007/09/27: CDreams: Guardian(UK): Diplomats Accuse Bush of Attempting to Derail UN Climate Conference
• 2007/09/28: NYT: At Its Session on Warming, U.S. Is Seen to Stand Apart
• 2007/09/28: Xinhuanet: Bush reiterates opposition to mandatory cuts on carbon emissions
• 2007/09/28: BBC: Bush seeks flexible CO2 targets
  US President George W Bush has said every country must set its own targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Correspondents say Mr Bush's comments, at a meeting of the top 16 polluting nations, suggest the US may not agree to any internationally-binding cuts
• 2007/09/28: CBC: Bush vows to lead in UN climate change talks
• 2007/09/28: AFP: Bush rejects emissions caps at climate talks
  US President George W. Bush Friday renewed his opposition to mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, insisting the fight against climate change should not block economic growth
• 2007/09/28: TStar: Canada defends presence at climate talks
  The Bush administration has opened a two-day climate change conference here fighting off charges it is undermining the United Nations and choosing voluntary goals over mandatory cuts in a post-Kyoto world. Canada was among 18 participants huddled for two days of talks at the U.S. State Department. Environment Minister John Baird said the meeting was key because it showed American engagement in finding global warming solutions. But many critics suggested it was an 11th-hour bid for credibility on climate change from a lame-duck administration that has none on this issue.
• 2007/09/28: AP: Bush Seeks New Image on Global Warming
• 2007/09/28: Guardian(UK): Rice defends Bush's UN climate talks
  The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, yesterday defended President George Bush's climate change conference in Washington against accusations that it was a spoiler intended to undermine UN efforts to secure a global compromise
• 2007/09/27: FTimes: Washington changes its tune on climate
• 2007/09/27: CNN: Nations must fight climate change like terrorism, Rice says
  U.S. secretary of state calls on nations to unite to combat climate change - Condoleezza Rice: Cooperation must be similar to fight against terror - U.S. wants nations to agree to long-term goals for greenhouse gas reductions
• 2007/09/27: KSJT: Lots of Ink: White House urges climate action, but only if you want to?
• 2007/09/28: ABC(Au): US committed to tackling global warming: Rice
• 2007/09/27: PhysOrg: Rice Urges Nations to Find Cleaner Fuels
• 2007/09/27: inel: Rice accord
• 2007/09/27: inel: Diplomats frustrated by Bush's climate change spoiler
• 2007/09/27: C411: Our Message to the White House Major Emitters Meeting
• 2007/09/27: ENN: U.S. Climate Talks Draw World's Biggest Polluters
• 2007/09/27: Yahoo: Biggest polluters gather for US-led climate forum
• 2007/09/27: Yahoo: Bush climate goals marked by bureaucracy
  The United States is lining up with China, India and the world's other biggest polluters in opposition to mandatory cuts in Earth-warming greenhouse gases sought by the United Nations and European countries. President Bush's two-day climate meeting, opening Thursday, will emphasize creating more processes to find a solution to global warming, rather than setting firm goals for reducing carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for heating up the atmosphere
• 2007/09/27: OilChange: Bush "Greenwashing" Summit Kicks Off
• 2007/09/26: USAToday: Bush gets set for climate-change meetings apart from U.N.
• 2007/09/27: CSM: Deeper level of interest in climate fix - High-level climate-change summits this week reveal a supportive environment for action
• 2007/09/27: HuffPo: Road to Nowhere: Bush's Latest Global Warming Stall
• 2007/09/27: DerSpiegel: Bush's Climate Protection Conference - 'This Administration Will Find a Way to Water it Down'
• 2007/09/27: BBC: Rice urges climate change accord
• 2007/09/27: CBC: Rice opens U.S. climate summit with warning not to 'starve' economies
• 2007/09/27: AFP: Rice vows US is committed to tackling global warming
• 2007/09/27: Independent(UK): Bush prepares for 'greenwashing' climate summit
• 2007/09/27: Guardian(UK): Diplomats accuse Bush of attempting to derail UN climate conference
• 2007/09/26: GristMill: A surge of idiocy - The absurdity that is Bush administration climate meetings
• 2007/09/26: PlanetArk: US Climate Meeting Won't Get Results - Germany

  And the inevitable retrospectives:

• 2007/09/28: GristMill: Climate week in New York comes to an end - The U.N. summit and Clinton Global Initiative are over, and where did they get us?
• 2007/09/25: CJR: Climate, Front And Center - Thus far, press keeps UN, White House gatherings in proper context
• 2007/09/28: inel: Pew Center GCC President's summary of climate meetings
• 2007/09/27: DerSpiegel: Climate Protection Debate - US, Chinese Officials Hold Secret 'Post-Bush Era' Meeting
  Spiegel Online has learned that Chinese officials and members of the United States Congress have held a secret meeting without White House participation about the future of Washington's climate protection policies. Beijing officials are trying to determine what they should expect in the post-Bush era

Late comment on the Montreal Protocol meeting:

• 2007/09/24: BBC: Deal on ozone and climate relief
  Nearly 200 governments have agreed a faster timetable for phasing out chemicals that deplete the ozone layer and contribute to global warming. The schedule for eliminating hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) comes forward by 10 years under the agreement signed at a UN meeting in Montreal

And in the hurricane wars, Karen & Lorenzo were relatively low key:

• 2007/09/29: PhysOrg: Hurricane Lorenzo slams into Mexico's Caribbean coast, weakens
• 2007/09/29: Wunderground: Karen struggling; Lorenzo sets a new intensification record
• 2007/09/28: Wunderground: Hurricane Lorenzo blows ashore; Karen continues weakening; TD 14 forms
• 2007/09/28: ENN: Hurricane Lorenzo hits Mexico, 3 dead
• 2007/09/28: ENN: Karen may turn toward U.S. East Coast, depression forms
• 2007/09/28: ENN: Tropical Storm Lorenzo Lashes Mexico's Gulf Coast
• 2007/09/28: Turkish Press: Hurricane Lorenzo slams into Mexico's Caribbean coast
• 2007/09/28: CBC: Lorenzo pounds Mexico's eastern coast before losing steam
• 2007/09/27: CCM: Karen, The Once and Future Hurricane?
• 2007/09/27: TerraDaily: Cyclones: Nature's Fury Or Nature's Friend
• 2007/09/27: Wunderground: Karen, TD 13, Florida disturbance 98L, and African disturbance
• 2007/09/26: Wunderground: Tropical update - Tropical Storm Karen...has stopped intensifying
• 2007/09/26: Wunderground: Karen, TD 13, 97L, new Florida disturbance 98L, and new African disturbance
• 2007/09/26: PlanetArk: Tropical Storm Karen Nears Hurricane Strength
• 2007/09/26: Guardian(UK): Flattened by hurricane [Felix], Mosquito Coast faces hunger and disease - Destruction of rainforest heralds long-term misery for impoverished villagers
• 2007/09/25: HillHeat: National Hurricane Research Initiative
• 2007/09/25: CCM: Our First "K" Storm Since Katrina
• 2007/09/25: Wunderground: A very busy day in the tropics; wind shear tutorial posted
• 2007/09/25: ENN: Cyclone Possible In Gulf, Atlantic Depression Forms
• 2007/09/24: Wunderground: Three tropical depressions may form by Wedneday in the Atlantic

  Yes we have feedbacks:

• 2007/09/26: Reasic: Feedback Mechanisms

  The ozone layer is still under threat:

• 2007/09/26: BOM: Ozone hole looms large, but not as big as it was
• 2007/09/28: RealClimate: Uncertainty in polar ozone depletion?

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2007/09/24: Times(UK): La Nina threatens to wreck world's weather

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2007/09/24: SciAmBlog: Frightening new maps of U.S. coastal areas to be inundated by global warming

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2007/09/27: GristMill: [Dessler] More about NASA and spin-offs - Unmanned space missions will free up more cash for scientific research
• 2007/09/24: GristMill: [Dessler] The NASA delusion - Moon base project sucks up potential climate research dollars
• 2007/09/24: TerraDaily: European polar satellite [MetOp-A] improving weather predictions

  The campaign to uncover DSCOVR [Deep Space Climate Observatory] rolls on:

• 2007/09/28: DeSmogBlog: Could DSCOVR be saved by NOAA?

  And in the "there's more than one way to chill those pesky scientists" department:

• 2007/09/24: Mole333: My Wife Faces Homeland Security Part I: Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12
  My wife is a graduate student at a joint program between NASA and Columbia University called the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Her department uses satellite data and computer modeling to study the atmosphere, climate and climate change. NASA, of course, has many top secret projects, projects which require high security. No one questions the need for high security and detailed background checks for specific, highly sensitive projects. This is perfectly reasonable.
  But the Federal Government under Bush is now insisting that ALL employees, contractors, students, etc. associated with NASA agree to allow an investigation into their lives should the Federal Government deem it necessary for any reason. In short, Homeland Security is demanding that all NASA employees, contractors, etc. right down to students like my wife, agree to undergo the same kind of scrutiny as if they ALL worked in a top secret program. They are treating ALL of NASA as if it was one big secret program. This strikes me as insanely inefficient in addition to highly intrusive.

More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2007/09/24: Globe&Mail: The Great Lakes disappearing act
• 2007/09/24: Xinhuanet: Heavy rains cause enormous losses in DPRK
• 2007/09/29: BBC: Brown pledges bluetongue action
  The government is not complacent about bluetongue and will take action against the disease at "a very high level", Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said "Unless we do have that very severe winter it is likely, given the Northern European experience, that the disease will re-emerge next year" Deputy chief vet Fred Landeg
• 2007/09/28: PhysOrg: Bluetongue disease outbreak confirmed in Britain
• 2007/09/28: JFleck: Disappearing Tundra
• 2007/09/27: Eureka: Climate may increase heat-related deaths by 2050s, says Mailman School of PH study
  Mailman School of Public Health researchers estimate a 47 percent to 95 percent increase in summer heat-related deaths in New York City region
• 2007/09/27: ClimateP: Top 100 Effects of Global Warming
• 2007/09/27: ABC(Au): Global warming 'set to threaten tropical birds'
• 2007/09/27: PhysOrg: Climate may increase heat-related deaths by 2050s
• 2007/09/27: FairbanksDNM: Barrow leaders see firsthand the results of global warming
• 2007/09/26: ADN: Alaskans pitch plea to fight global warming - Effects are great: Burning tundra and coastal erosion are taking a toll
• 2007/09/26: BBC: Fourth bluetongue case hits farm
• 2007/09/25: GristMill: It's not hot in here, it's just global warming - Icy creature populations to deplete as temperatures rise
• 2007/09/24: MTobis: Ocean to Violate 1976 EPA pH Standards
• 2007/09/25: CCM: More Troubling News for Loggerheads [turtles]
• 2007/09/25: PlanetArk: Poor at Risk, Action Needed on Warming - UN Draft [4AR draft SPM]
• 2007/09/25: PlanetArk: Australia's Drought May Cut Wine Vintage by Half
• 2007/09/24: ENN: Warming shrinks Kashmir's rivers, streams: [ActionAid] report
• 2007/09/25: People's Daily: 2nd case of bluetongue disease found in UK
• 2007/09/25: SMH: Sentinels for a lost world
• 2007/09/23: ClimateP: Global Warming's Toll on the Economy
• 2007/09/24: CAP: The Top 100 Effects of Global Warming
• 2007/09/24: ThinkP: Top 100 effects of global warming

  While in the tropical rainforests:

• 2007/09/24: BBC: Amazonian forest 'more resilient' - The Amazon rainforest may be more resistant to rising temperatures than has been believed
• 2007/09/25: SMH: Foresters paid to stop logging

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2007/09/24: BBC: Parts of UK struck by tornadoes - A series of tornadoes has struck communities across England, damaging homes and vehicles and uprooting trees

  We have heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2007/09/25: AbqJournal: Scientist Says Warming Makes Fires Worse
• 2007/09/26: Atmoz: Are Fires a Proxy for Global Warming?
• 2007/09/26: ABC(Au): Global warming to intensify bushfire season: study
• 2007/09/26: ABC(Au): Report links climate change to future bushfire threat [CSIRO]
• 2007/09/26: ABC(Au): Fire danger up 300pc by mid-century: CSIRO
• 2007/09/26: ABC(Au): Climate group [Climate Institute] warns of catastrophic fires

  Late coverage on the Greek wildfires:

• 2007/09/28: TruthOut: WWF in Despair Over Greek Fire Damage
• 2007/09/28: ABC(Au): Greece forest regrowth to take 20 yrs: WWF
• 2007/09/28: BBC: Greek recovery 'to take decades'
  The environmental charity WWF has said it will take at least two decades for forests to grow back in the areas of Greece destroyed by the recent fires
• 2007/09/28: Guardian(UK): WWF in despair over Greek fire damage - Rare species of animals and plants lost in flames

  And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2007/09/27: JFleck: The Arctic and Drought
• 2007/09/26: JFleck: Drought and Climate Change in Australia
• 2007/09/25: UN: Most severe drought in memory drastically reduces crops in Moldova, UN reports
• 2007/09/25: ABC(Au): Murray-Darling crisis: 'No more water in 6 weeks'
  The New South Wales Government says irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin only have enough water to last them about another six weeks
• 2007/09/24: SMH: Hope withers on the vine
  Irrigation water in the Murray-Darling Basin is selling for up to 10 times the price of a year ago as farmers fight to keep their permanent plantings alive. Many irrigators growing citrus, stone fruit and wine grapes have less than 10 per cent of their normal allocation - not enough to survive another long, hot summer. An increasingly common sight across the basin is citrus trees that have been cut back to the stump. It helps them survive with little water but takes them out of production for up to five years
• 2007/09/24: MTobis: CO2 -> plants -> hydrology

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2007/09/28: Sify: Food versus fuel: The emerging debate

  And the troubling matter of falling food production is not going away:

• 2007/09/26: CourierMail: Global food shock real, says former Nats leader
  Former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader John Anderson has warned of a potential global food shock with falling production and soaring prices. Mr Anderson said anyone outraged by the federal government's support package for drought-hit farmers had never gone hungry
• 2007/09/28: PlanetArk: Australia Beef Crisis Hits as Drought Decimates Wheat
• 2007/09/28: SMH: Prepare for food shortages, PM warns
  The drought will cause a food shortage and Australians may have to get used to paying much higher prices, Prime Minister John Howard said
• 2007/09/27: Australian: Grain stockpiles at a 30-year low
  The world is in no danger of running out of grain, despite the lowest stockpiles in 30 years and concerns about food security. Australian Farm Institute executive director Mick Keogh said the growing affluence of the developing world and the demand for biofuels, as well as the weather, were behind the substantial price rises in international wheat, dairy and oilseed prices. The US Agriculture Department estimates that world wheat stocks, at the end of the current crop year, will fall to their lowest level since 1977-78
• 2007/09/26: MoneyWeek: Are we heading for Peak Food?
• 2007/09/26: BBC: EU acts on world grain shortage
  The EU has approved plans to increase the production of wheat and other grains amid rising prices and growing shortages on the world market. Agriculture ministers decided to lift temporarily an existing requirement that farmers set aside 10% of their land and let it lie fallow. The measure was introduced 15 years ago at a time of over-production in Europe. EU officials say lifting the restriction could boost grain production by up to 17m metric tonnes
• 2007/09/26: ABC(Au): Drought causing long-term rise in food prices
• 2007/09/25: Reuters: Africa: Food production to halve by 2020
  Food security in Africa is likely to be "severely compromised" by climate change, with production expected to halve by 2020, according to climate change experts. The projections are contained in a report launched last week in London by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was followed by an experts' panel discussion

Fulminations on the agro-corps:

• 2007/09/29: GRC: Corn-to-Ethanol: US Agribusiness Magic Path To A World Food Monopoly
• 2007/09/26: CDreams: IPS: Only a Handful Are Lords of the Food Harvest

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2007/09/29: ABC(Au): Carbon-conscious workers choose public transport
• 2007/09/28: NewScientist: 'Green roofs' could cool warming cities
• 2007/09/28: C411: To Drive Less, Live Closer to Work
• 2007/09/23: Maribo: Greenhouse gases and meat production

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2007/09/28: BBC: Biofuel trial flight set for 747 - Air New Zealand says it plans to mount the first test flight of a commercial airliner partially powered by biofuel
• 2007/09/26: TreeHugger: EU On Collison Course With US Over Airline Carbon Cap Proposal
• 2007/09/24: TruthOut: EU Clashes With US Over Airline Emissions Trade

  An interesting counterpoint in the collapsing US housing market:

• 2007/09/25: LA Times: Sun-powered homes defy a cool housing market
• 2007/09/20: WattHead: All New Homes Should Be Zero-Net-Energy By 2020 Says California Utility Commission

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2007/09/28: NEN: Geologic Sequestration: Opportunity in the Pacific Northwest?
• 2007/09/27: PhysOrg: Carbon Dioxide Underground Storage Feasible Using 'Off-the-Shelf' Technology from Oil Industry
• 2007/09/27: TreeHugger: Suck on this, CO2 [seq]
• 2007/09/26: ACS:EST: The CO2 sponge - It may be possible to sop up some of the greenhouse gas problem directly, according to new research
• 2007/09/25: DailyIndia: Scientist urges underground CO2 storage

  In large scale geo-engineering, the iron hypothesis is back:

• 2007/09/28: TerraDaily: Scientists, Policymakers, And Industry Leaders Gather To Discuss Ocean Iron Fertilization
• 2007/09/26: SciBlogging: Global Warming Voodoo Or Science? 'Iron Fertilization' Of Oceans
• 2007/09/26: SciDaily: Could Iron Fertilization Of Oceans Combat Global Warming?
• 2007/09/25: WHOI: Scientists, Policymakers, and Industry Leaders Gather to Discuss Ocean Iron Fertilization

  And Lovelock & Rapley have suggested a new (to me, at least) mitigation technique:

• 2007/09/27: KSJT: BBC, Brit press: Ocean pipes might haul deep nutrients up, send CO2 down.
• 2007/09/27: ABC(Au): Ocean pumps a 'radical' strategy for climate change
• 2007/09/27: ABC(Au): Gaia guru urges ocean pipes climate fix
• 2007/09/26: NewScientist: Ocean pumps could counter global warming
• 2007/09/26: NSU: Mixing the oceans proposed to reduce global warming - Could nutrients from the deep help remove carbon dioxide from the air?
• 2007/09/27: ENN: Gaia Guru Urges Ocean Pipes To Fix Earth's Climate
• 2007/09/27: Guardian(UK): How sea tubes could slow climate change [geo eng]
• 2007/09/26: NatureCF: Lovelock and Rapley propose cure for global warming
• 2007/09/26: NewScientist: Vertical ocean pipes could counter global warming
• 2007/09/26: PhysOrg: Giant ocean-based pipes could curb global warming: scientists [geo eng]
• 2007/09/26: Stoat: Wacky baccy pipes [Lovelock]
• 2007/09/26: PlanetArk: Gaia Guru Urges Ocean Pipes to Fix Earth's Climate
• 2007/09/26: BBC: Lovelock urges ocean climate fix
  Two of Britain's leading environmental thinkers say it is time to develop a quick technical fix for climate change. Writing in the journal Nature, Science Museum head Chris Rapley and Gaia theorist James Lovelock suggest looking at boosting ocean take-up of CO2. Their idea, already being investigated by a US firm, involves huge flotillas of vertical pipes in the tropical seas. The two scientists say they doubt that existing plans for curbing carbon emissions can work quickly enough

Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2007/09/28: CPD: Precipitation variations of Longxi, northeast margin of Tibetan plateau since AD 960 and its relationship with solar activity by L. Tan et al.
• 2007/09/28: CPD: Potential imprint of Sp?rer and Maunder solar minima on coral skeleton carbon isotopes by T. Ourbak et al.
• 2007/09/28: ACP: Long-time global radiation for Central Europe derived from ISCCP Dx data by N. Petrenz et al.
• 2007/09/28: ACP: A study of the effect of overshooting deep convection on the water content of the TTL and lower stratosphere from Cloud Resolving Model simulations by D. P. Grosvenor et al.
• 2007/09/28: ACPD: Methane emissions from boreal and tropical forest ecosystems derived from in-situ measurements by V. Sinha et al.
• 2007/09/28: ACPD: Long-term climatology of air mass transport through the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) during NH winter by K. Kr?ger et al.
• 2007/09/27: ACPD: An improvement on the dust emission scheme in the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM by T. Cheng et al.
• 2007/09/27: ACPD: Cloud type comparisons of AIRS, CloudSat, and CALIPSO cloud height and amount by B. H. Kahn et al.
• 2007/09/26: ACPD: Validation of ACE-FTS satellite data in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) using non-coincident measurements by M. I. Hegglin et al.
• 2007/08/25: GRL: (ab$) Wildfires drive interannual variability of organic carbon aerosol in the western U.S. in summer by Dominick V. Spracklen et al.
• 2007/09/27: GRL: (ab$) Disappearing "alpine tundra" Köppen climatic type in the western United States by Henry F. Diaz & Jon K. Eischeid
• 2007/09/: GlobalChangeBiology: The disappearance of relict permafrost in boreal north America: Effects on peatland carbon storage and fluxes by M. R. Turetsky et al.
• 2007/09/25: ACPD: Chemical Isolation in the Asian monsoon anticyclone observed in Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE-FTS) data by M. Park et al.
• 2007/09/25: PNAS: Improvement of water use efficiency in rice by expression of HARDY, an Arabidopsis drought and salt tolerance gene by Aarati Karaba et al.
• 2007/09/25: PNAS: Identification of human-induced changes in atmospheric moisture content by B. D. Santer et al.
• 2007/09/25: PNAS: Changes in climate and land use have a larger direct impact than rising CO2 on global river runoff trends by Shilong Piao et al.
• 2007/09/25: PNAS: Drivers of reforestation in human-dominated forests by Harini Nagendra

  Before we get into politics, there was some science done:

• 2007/09/27: PhysOrg: Carbon dioxide did not end the last Ice Age
• 2007/09/27: Eureka: Researchers detect hint of oxygen 50 to 100 million years earlier than first believed
• 2007/09/27: Eureka: Carbon dioxide did not end the last Ice Age
  Deep-sea temperatures rose 1,300 years before atmospheric CO2, ruling out the greenhouse gas as driver of meltdown, says study in Science
• 2007/09/27: Eureka: Antarctic plants and animal life survived ice ages - New work could change climate models
• 2007/09/27: Eureka: Environmental changes preceded first great rise in atmospheric oxygen
• 2007/09/27: Eureka: Researchers detect hint of oxygen 50 to 100 million years earlier than first believed
• 2007/09/26: Stoat: Lapse rate changes
• 2007/09/26: Eureka: Cave records provide clues to climate change - Tropical 'ice cores' show active role for Pacific

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2007/09/24: inel: Climate change calendar 2007

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2007/09/27: NEN: Best in Emissions Credits
• 2007/09/27: EnvEcon: Carbon for sale [Brazil CO2 market]
• 2007/09/26: HC: Brazil Claims First With Carbon Auction
  Brazil's largest city sold millions of dollars worth of carbon credits at an auction Wednesday in a deal that experts said paves the way for developing countries to make money fighting global warming. Brazil's Mercantile and Futures Exchange called Sao Paulo's sale of $18.5 million in carbon credits to Dutch-Belgian Fortis Bank the first such sale to be held on a regulated stock market and a significant step toward institutionalizing the carbon market.
• 2007/09/26: ClimateP: Lehman on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
• 2007/09/25: PlanetArk: Carbon Price is Poor Weapon Against Climate Change [says Tom Burke of environment lobby group E3G]

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2007/09/29: TreeHugger: Gro Brundtland on Climate-Change Mitigation in Norway [Carbon tax]
• 2007/09/27: EnvEcon: Breaking news from The Carbon Tax Center
• 2007/09/25: PEF: Carbon tax shifting

  The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:

• 2007/09/27: FPB: Clinton: Carbon market better than carbon tax
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Disinterested analysis - Banks want a cap-and-trade system
• 2007/09/26: NYT: Banks Urging U.S. to Adopt the Trading of Emissions
• 2007/09/24: MMcArdle: A perfect, green world

  The quality of carbon offsets has been raised:

• 2007/09/25: GristMill: Suffer the little children -- from carbon offsets? A clean tech firm accuses a carbon credit nonprofit of forcing kids to do fieldwork
• 2007/09/23: Times(UK): The "carbon offset" child labourers - Indians work off West's holiday guilt

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2007/09/29: TreeHugger: The Third Industrial Revolution
  So why do North American politicians keep saying that the cost of Kyoto is too high? As the head of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) [Achim Steiner] said: "You can make money out of climate change, Capitalism can change with a changing market. Lehman Brothers has more environmental experts than the UNEP."
• 2007/09/24: IPSNews: An International Court to Try Ecological Crimes?

  The GW as insecurity meme has been active (see also Australia below):

• 2007/09/28: BBC: Equality 'threatened by climate'
  Climate change is the "greatest long-term threat" to achieving global equality, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has told the United Nations
• 2007/09/26: MTobis: Generalized Climate Change [security]

  And on the American political front:

• 2007/09/28: GristMill: The Hill goes green - Legislators take to the pages of the capitol's mag to talk eco-this and that
• 2007/09/28: GristMill: Quick, before the people who really mean it show up! U.S. industry may well help push climate legislation through the Senate this session
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: That spade is a spade - Unusually straightforward journalistic fact-checking at the Post
• 2007/09/28: WarmingLaw: Everyone Else is Doing It, So We'll Take Credit
• 2007/09/26: Agora: America's New Religion [hi energy lifestyle]
• 2007/09/27: WarmingLaw: Judicial Activism = "I don't like it."
• 2007/09/26: CSM: Big carbon cuts: scary, but doable - To help stop a climate disaster, the US should copy Europe's example.
• 2007/09/27: WaPo: White House Taking Unearned Credit for Emissions Cuts - Pushing Voluntary Curbs on Greenhouse Gases, Administration Lauds Results of Programs It Opposed
• 2007/09/26: ThinkP: Boxer-Inhofe global warming rematch
• 2007/09/26: ClimateP: New Analysis of Recent Climate Legislation
• 2007/09/26: CSW: U.S. Climate Change Science Program has been undermined by budget cutbacks
• 2007/09/24: Reuters: Bush's evolving policy on global warming
• 2007/09/26: CDreams: TruthDig: Global Consensus, Not Global Conquest [US pol]
• 2007/09/26: CDreams: McClatchy: Alaskans Warn House Panel about Global Warming's Effects
• 2007/09/25: SeattlePI: Greenhouse Gases: Let states lead
  We are proud that Washington state is following California in the effort to limit cars' greenhouse gas emissions. So, we're alarmed (but not surprised) that the Bush administration is using political tricks to block the limits
• 2007/09/25: inel: Climate change: pick a leader for America!
• 2007/09/25: WarmingLaw: Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can't They?
• 2007/09/24: CSW: Examining the U.S. climate change budget - Part 1
• 2007/09/24: CSW: Upcoming House hearing to examine National Security Implications of Climate Change
• 2007/09/25: C411: [US] States and Cities Lead the Way
• 2007/09/24: C411: The Energy Bills Are Not Enough
• 2007/09/25: DeSmogBlog: Bush Administration Comes Unraveled Around the Climate Issue
• 2007/09/24: Yahoo: World energy revolution needed for climate: U.S.
  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday the world needs a revolution on energy that transcends oil, gas and coal to prevent problems from climate change
• 2007/09/25: NEN: Wyoming Governor [Dave Freudenthal] fights oil interest manipulations
• 2007/09/25: CPunch: The Climate Change Hypocrite - Schwarzenegger at the UN
• 2007/09/25: WaPo: A Price on Carbon - Moving inexorably to the inevitable
  The world's understandable skepticism of the United States' seriousness in dealing with climate change will be on full display this week during summits in New York and Washington. After all, President Bush has temporized and dithered while Congress has refused to act. Even House and Senate energy bills, which in any case only nibble at the edges of the problem, are stuck in legislative limbo. Yet there is movement on Capitol Hill to slow the aggressive advance of global warming by putting a price on carbon. A carbon tax would be the simplest and most efficient way to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and that sadly is unlikely to get far. But an encouraging bipartisan consensus may be building in Washington around the second-best option, a cap-and-trade system in which government would set a cap on the amount of carbon dioxide that could be emitted and would issue allowances to emitting companies that could buy and sell those rights.
• 2007/09/24: Forbes: Pa. Gov [Ed Rendell]: Energy Key to Jobs, Security
• 2007/09/25: SF Gate: His incomplete trip...
  President Bush once again made it clear that he will approach climate change on his own timetable and in his own way. In other words, he continues to show little sense of urgency or compulsion to work in partnership with other nations.
• 2007/09/24: MYglesias: Did Leaving Kyoto Matter?
• 2007/09/24: MMcArdle: The politics of climate change
• 2007/09/24: NewScientist: US set to violate its standards on CO2 emissions
• 2007/09/24: GristMill: How Bush really feels about California's climate efforts
  White House behind lobbying campaign to undermine California auto-emissions plan, Waxman charges
• 2007/09/20: WattHead: Look Who's Writing Global Warming Legislation (Hint: It's Not Who You Might Want!)
• 2007/09/24: BSD: Climate legislation in Congress
• 2007/09/24: OilChange: [Bill] Clinton: Huge Economic Effort Needed on Climate
• 2007/09/24: SF Gate: Enacting federal climate legislation ends up being long, hard slog
• 2007/09/21: SeattlePI: It takes a city to limit greenhouse gases
• 2007/09/24: TLC: Getting Nowhere On Global Warming

  John Dingell has put up his draft carbon tax legislation:

• 2007/09/29: EcoEcon: Dingell Drafts Carbon Tax Legislation
• 2007/09/29: SMH: US congressman's fuel tax idea [Dingell]
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Quote of the day - Dingell gets off a zinger in a testy interview
• 2007/09/27: Yahoo: Climate change bill calls for 50-cent fuel tax
• 2007/09/28: OilDrum: Analysis of the Hon. John Dingell's carbon-tax proposal
  It does not appear to be a serious basis for initiatives to move away from fossil energy. Instead, it looks like a straw-man proposal designed to fail, while appearing to promote the interests of union labor in the process. My final appraisal is "disappointingly cynical".
• 2007/09/28: IR^2: Dingell's Got the Right Idea [a carbon tax]
• 2007/09/26: GristMill: Dingell opens the door - Rep. John Dingell introduces his hybrid carbon tax
• 2007/09/27: HillHeat: Dingell Unveils Carbon Tax Proposal
• 2007/09/27: AfterGutenberg: Dingell hybrid carbon tax
• 2007/09/26: WaPo: [Dingell] Plan Uses Taxes to Fight Climate Change
• 2007/09/26: GristMill: You too can be John Dingell's legislative adviser - Dingell wants feedback on his carbon tax bill

  The Bush administration has been lobbying to block approval of California vehicle standards:

• 2007/09/25: CDreams: SF Chronicle: How the White House Worked to Scuttle California's Climate Law
• 2007/09/24: Freep: Bush administration pushed states to lobby against California fuel rules - House Democratic chairman will hold hearings
• 2007/09/24: HouseOversight: White House Approved Lobbying Effort to Block Approval of California Vehicle Standards
  Internal e-mails show that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters personally directed a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign approved by the White House to oppose EPA approval of Californiaà $(Bs (Blandmark standards reducing greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles
• 2007/09/25: TruthOut: How the White House Worked to Scuttle California's Climate Law
• 2007/09/25: WarmingLaw: UN Ironic Lobbying Against California Standards
• 2007/09/25: SF Gate: How the White House worked to scuttle California's climate law
• 2007/09/24: DeSmogBlog: Transport Secretary Caught in Lobbying Effort Against California Clean Air

  Evangelicals are still in conflict:

• 2007/09/28: ClimateArk: Country Split Over Global Warming Widens Among Evangelicals
• 2007/09/28: DeSmogBlog: The Evangelical Global Warming Battleground
• 2007/09/27: FPB: WMECWJS? (What mandatory emissions caps would Jesus support?)
• 2007/09/24: TruthOut: Pope to Make Climate Action a Moral Obligation

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2007/09/30: CanWest: Al Gore: 'The planet has a fever' - Al Gore tells 1,400 in Victoria: Governments must act to reduce our carbon footprint
• 2007/09/23: ABC(Au): Rudd in climate talks with Gore

  While in the UK:

• 2007/09/28: ENN: UK Power Giants Fail to Show Leadership on Climate Change
• 2007/09/26: Guardian(UK): Pressure vessel
  Stop Climate Chaos may have only seven staff members but it has successfully galvanised extensive support from groups and the public to help force a law on climate change - and its work is not over yet.
• 2007/09/25: ABC(Au): UK's Brown warns Aus, US on emissions cuts
  British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is fuelling speculation of a pre-Christmas election and urging the world's wealthy countries that they must take stronger action on climate change. As he delivered his first leader's speech to his party's annual conference in Bournemouth, Mr Brown's words had all the hallmarks of a campaign launch. And he did warn the United States and Australia that all rich countries must soon embrace binding emissions targets on greenhouse gases. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has told the ABC's AM program Mr Brown believes the richest countries have to do the most in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With world leaders gearing up to negotiate a post-Kyoto deal on climate change, Mr Brown said he will think about going further than the UK's current plan to cut emissions by 60 per cent by the year 2050

A UK parent afraid of Inconvenient Truth:

• 2007/09/28: PlanetArk: UK Government in Court Over Gore Environment Film
• 2007/09/27: BBC: Legal battle on Gore climate film
  A parent is urging a judge to reconsider a ruling that the government did not break the law when it sent schools copies of a film by Al Gore. Stuart Dimmock, a father from Kent and a member of the New Party, is at London's High Court. In late July, a judge there ruled that the decision to send the climate change film "An Inconvenient Truth" to England's secondary schools was lawful. Mr Dimmock had argued that circulating the film amounted to indoctrination

The UK government has done the CFL thing:

• 2007/09/27: BBC: Switch off for traditional bulbs - Plans to phase out the traditional lightbulb by 2011 have been announced by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn
• 2007/09/28: PlanetArk: Britain to Start Phasing Out High Energy [incandescent] Lightbulbs
• 2007/09/27: PhysOrg: Britain to switch off energy-guzzling light bulbs

  And in Europe:

• 2007/09/28: EnergyDaily: France unveils blueprint for green revolution
• 2007/09/27: HarvardGazette: Digging for solutions to energy crisis
  In the 1970s, Iceland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Today it is one of the richest, with a per capita GDP higher than that of Denmark, from which it won full independence in 1944. How did it accomplish this remarkable transformation? A key element was the shift from imported coal and oil to geothermal energy
• 2007/09/27: AutoBG: European Parliament demands sustainability certification for biofuels
• 2007/09/26: EUO: EU member states slow to commit to green energy targets
• 2007/09/26: PlanetArk: EU Struggles to Walk its Talk on Climate Change

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2007/09/26: TerraDaily: Howard Plays Down Drought Causes As Fire Risk Blows Out 300 Percent
• 2007/09/29: ABC(Au): Greens leader [Senator Bob Brown] slams Bush's climate change speech
• 2007/09/29: GWWatch: Australia don't follow US climate policy failure - ACF [Australian Conservation Foundation]
• 2007/09/28: CJR: Climate and the Campaign - U.S. databases v. Australian news
  As the federal election rapidly approaches, climate change, energy, and environment have become leading issues among candidates and the media -- in Australia
• 2007/09/29: SMH: Climate 'shift' no cause for panic: Howard
  The Prime Minister, John Howard, said yesterday he believed the continuing drought was an example of "climate shift", not climate change
• 2007/09/29: SMH: Time to walk away [Aus drought]
• 2007/09/28: ABC(Au): Swift action urged on nuclear industry legislation
• 2007/09/28: ABC(Au): Labor targets [Environment Minister, Malcolm] Turnbull over climate change 'backflip'
• 2007/09/28: SMH: Climate strategy a disaster: study
  The Howard Government's strategy to deal with climate change - including support for "aspirational" goals rather than binding targets - could lead to catastrophic consequences in Australia, a study has found
• 2007/09/28: SMH: Three little words to freak out the farmers
  An ABC interview has made Peter Garrett fair game for the Coalition, says Stephanie Peatling. It took just three words for Labor's environment spokesman, Peter Garrett, to provoke the allegation that he was the "Grim Reaper" of Australia's farmers. All Mr Garrett did was say "Well, it is" when asked by the host of the ABC's Lateline, Tony Jones, whether it was time to audit agricultural land to see if any would be rendered unviable by global warming.
• 2007/09/28: SMH: Developer to go it alone on greenhouse gases
  The new owners of the Carlton United Brewery site are planning how to generate their own electricity to reduce greenhouse gases - even though the State Government does not demand it.
• 2007/09/28: SMH: [Foreign Minister, Alexander] Downer adopts US line on carbon caps
• 2007/09/27: ABC(Au): [Environment and Climate Change Minister, Phil] Koperberg denies labelling clean coal an 'oxymoron'
• 2007/09/27: ABC(Au): Council plans for rising sea levels
  A New South Wales council is investigating whether it needs to start setting money aside to buy out coastal properties likely to be affected by sea-level rises associated with climate change. Wyong Council, on the state's Central Coast, last night called for a report into the issue, including an estimate of the number of properties that will be affected over the next 50 years. Mayor Warren Welham says the cost to council is likely to be significant and it is something all coastal councils need to start planning for.
• 2007/09/26: Yahoo: Australian PM [John Howard] downplays link between drought, climate change
• 2007/09/26: SMH: Howard holds nuclear laws until after election
  Legislation flagged by the Prime Minister, John Howard, six months ago to pave the way for the establishment of a nuclear industry in Australia has been shelved until after the election. Coalition sources said nuclear politics was proving unpopular and the Government had no desire to highlight the issue with the election so close and the Coalition trailing in the polls.
• 2007/09/26: ABC(Au): Honour for climate change scientist [South Australian biologist Professor Barry Brook]
• 2007/09/26: ABC(Au): Aust has climate change role post-Kyoto: [Foreign Minister, Alexander] Downer
• 2007/09/25: ABC(Au): Consumers want green power at low cost: study
• 2007/09/24: ABC(Au): Total fire bans [in South Australia] as northerlies forecast

  The Howard government has announced a renewable energy target:

• 2007/09/24: SMH: Renewed energy in a climate of change
  John Howard has reversed his refusal to promote renewable energy as a key source of electricity, announcing a "clean energy target" of about 15 per cent
• 2007/09/25: PlanetArk: Australia's PM Goes Green, Opponents See Red
  Australia's prime minister, facing a tough re-election fight and under pressure over his climate credentials, has pledged new "clean energy" targets in a move environment groups said would not sway green-leaning voters. By 2020, John Howard said, 15 percent of Australia's energy would come from "clean" sources including solar, wind, nuclear or clean coal, reversing his coalition government's previous reluctance to lift its renewable energy target from 2 percent
• 2007/09/24: ABC(Au): Govt's clean energy target attracts criticism
• 2007/09/23: ABC(Au): PM announces national clean energy target
  Prime Minister John Howard has announced a new national clean energy target requiring that 30,000 gigawatt hours per year come from low emission sources by 2020. Those sources include renewable energy, as well as fossil-fuel power generation which uses carbon capture storage. The national scheme is designed to replace the individual state and territory schemes. Mr Howard says he plans to consult state and territory leaders immediately

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty stated climate change a greater threat than terrorism to much hullabaloo:

• 2007/09/28: ABC(Au): [AFP Commissioner, Mick] Keelty stands firm on climate change security comments
• 2007/09/28: ABC(Au): Nelson denies climate change is biggest security threat
  What exactly is the gravest threat to Australia's future national security? Two of Australia's most senior figures in this arena have different ideas about it. Earlier this week Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty nominated climate change as the most pressing national security challenge. But in a speech last night, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson rejected Mr Keelty's views, saying that terrorism and Islamic extremism would continue to pose the greatest threat for decades to come
• 2007/09/28: ABC(Au): Terrorism threat more immediate than climate change: PM
• 2007/09/28: ABC(Au): [Defence Minister Brendan] Nelson contradicts [Federal Police Commissioner Mick] Keelty on terrorism
• 2007/09/25: ABC(Au): Border security link to climate change: Keelty
• 2007/09/25: ABC(Au): Labor to plan for climate change security issues
• 2007/09/25: ABC(Au): Security issue of the century or just hot air? [Keelty]
• 2007/09/25: ABC(Au): Climate change a huge security problem: Keelty
  As if more evidence is needed that climate change is more than an environmental issue, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty has labelled it the biggest security issue of the century
• 2007/09/25: Yahoo: Climate shift is biggest security risk: Australia
  Climate change, not war or terrorism, will be the century's biggest security challenge with China unlikely to be able to feed its vast and growing population as a result, Australia's top policeman has warned

While in China:

• 2007/09/24: Xinhuanet: Bund blackout sends powerful signal
  Shanghai's Bund lost its dazzling shine for half an hour Sunday night when all landscape lighting outside the historical buildings went dark. But it wasn't an accident - the lights were switched off by state energy authorities to remind people what will happen if they don't save energy as a matter of course
• 2007/09/26: RealClimate: Perspectives from China
• 2007/09/25: Yahoo: China discovers "new" glaciers on roof of world
  China has discovered 42 glaciers on the roof of the world, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau where ice is shrinking due to global warming, and the group could be the biggest of them all, state media said on Tuesday

And in Canada, the minority Conservative government continues to do as little as possible:

• 2007/09/27: RigZone: Alberta Angles for Bigger Share of Oil Receipts as Futures Soar
• 2007/09/26: CBC: 'Lungs of the world' need protection: Paul Martin
• 2007/09/27: CanWest: The cost of Kyoto
• 2007/09/27: CanWest: Knocking Kyoto off its perch
• 2007/09/25: TerraDaily: Canada to monitor traffic in Northwest Passage
• 2007/09/26: CanWest: United environmental front a tough sell - B.C., Alberta approaching problem from very different angles
• 2007/09/25: Globe&Mail: Savaging Alberta's bozo years and its royalty regime
• 2007/09/25: HfxNews: The True North ... strong, but whose? Canada can't let northwest passage slip away
• 2007/09/24: TreeHugger: Canadian Youth Tackle Urban Climate Change

  Harper's behaviour in NYC came in for criticism, and, oh yeah, we're joining APPCDC:

• 2007/09/24: CanWest: Poll: Harper on wrong side in climate-change debate
• 2007/09/24: LKO: Harper proposes countries already ahead of us "follow our lead" on Climate Change...
• 2007/09/24: Impolitical: Have a nice day at the U.N., Mini Bush
• 2007/09/27: DeSmogBlog: Canadian PM Harper repackaging Bush's carbon intensity spin
• 2007/09/27: CanWest: Harper to push emissions [intensity] target linked to growth - Liberal critic calls it an attempt to please the 'lame-duck' U.S. administration
• 2007/09/26: Maribo: Intensity targets for the world, says PM Harper
• 2007/09/26: Globe&Mail: PM wants hard caps scrapped in next green deal - 'Intensity targets' touted as alternative to key Kyoto tenet
• 2007/09/26: CanWest: Getting rich by going green [biz]
• 2007/09/26: CanWest: Waiting for a lightbulb [efficiency]
  Maybe we can't shut down the Alberta tar sands overnight, but could someone at least turn down the air conditioning in this office? It is climbing to 30 degrees outside as I write this and my toes are freezing. But this isn't about my toes (I'll wear socks tomorrow), it is about a bewildering failure by all governments to do the easy thing in the battle to reduce the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming: at least stop wasting energy. Is it going to bring the economy to its knees if patio-heaters are regulated, or building codes are updated, or stricter limits are imposed on common appliances? Such measures aren't enough to get us to our Kyoto targets, but they would be a significant help.
• 2007/09/26: Globe&Mail: The new company he wants to keep [APPCDC]
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper's progress from a climate-change skeptic to an environmental convert has been a perplexing odyssey.
• 2007/09/26: CanWest: PM's green stance an embarrassment - Harper's vague promises giving fuel to opposition's call for action on Kyoto
• 2007/09/26: TStar: PM's lip service on climate threat
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper is hardly the leader he pretends to be on climate change, the planet's most pressing environmental threat. At Monday's unprecedented United Nations conference of world leaders on global warming, Harper made every effort to undermine the attempt by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to build momentum for a tough new treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. In his opening remarks, Ban stressed the immediate challenge: "To confront climate change within a global framework, one that guarantees the highest level of international co-operation." [...] By contrast, Harper used the occasion to show he opposes the kind of concerted international action needed to fight global warming
• 2007/09/25: DeSmogBlog: Canada on Climate Change: A Humiliation a Day
• 2007/09/25: Globe&Mail: Ottawa signs on to rival emissions pact [APPCDC]
  After addressing a United Nations session aimed at reviving Kyoto, Harper says Canada will join the Asia-Pacific Partnership
• 2007/09/24: Impolitical: Odd strategery -- You know, I just can't see what Mini Bush is thinking with his go-slow approach on climate change....
• 2007/09/25: TStar: Canada in "anti-Kyoto" club [APPCDC]
  Canada will join a small coalition of countries that have spurned calls for mandatory pollution-reduction targets to fight climate change despite producing more than half the world's emissions. Canada will sign on to the Asia Pacific Partnership at an Oct. 15 meeting in Delhi, India, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters yesterday. The announcement came at a high-level meeting of 150 countries intended to lead to a new treaty that will succeed the Kyoto protocol when it expires in 2012.
• 2007/09/25: TStar: Harper still off-base on environment
• 2007/09/25: TSun: Crusade hits NYC - Tuning in to Stephen Harper's travelling green show of late...
• 2007/09/24: DeSmogBlog: Harper Approaches UN with "next to no credibility"

  The Ontario election is coming up:

• 2007/09/29: TreeHugger: Ontario Election 2007: Who is the Greenest? Part 2
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Be careful what you wish for - Conservative candidate in Ontario will expand nuclear power industry, if elected

  The BC government is laying out an ambitious climate change plan:

• 2007/09/29: CanWest: B.C. to require emissions cuts, Campbell says
  Premier spells out measures to fight pollution, but critics say he didn't reveal anything new
• 2007/09/28: CBC: B.C. premier rolls out sweeping green plan - Greenhouse gas emissions to be cut 33 per cent by 2020, says Campbell
• 2007/09/27: Tyee: Local Power Key to Fighting Global Warming: Poll -- Municipal officials have citizens' trust, but lack money.
• 2007/09/28: Globe&Mail: Tough new rule may stop wells flaring, but not tempers [BC climate policy]
• 2007/09/25: CBC: Can Campbell reduce B.C.'s greenhouse gases by 1/3? Stay tuned - Premier expected to unveil details of ambitious plans on Friday
• 2007/09/24: Tyee: Global Warming: Will Campbell Get Tough? Clouds about to part on BC's climate action agenda

  The tricky question of the oil sands looms:

• 2007/09/26: BBerg: Nuclear, Biofuel, Oil Sands Needed to Cut Emissions, Shell Says

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

• 2007/09/28: GristMill: Passionate but confused - A response to Shellenberger & Nordhaus from Dave Hawkins of NRDC
• 2007/09/28: CCM: My Critique of Nordhaus and Shellenberger
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Environmentalism's existential moment - Shellenberger & Nordhaus respond to critics
• 2007/09/27: DeSmogBlog: Nordhaus and Shellenberger: Overselling the Right Message
• 2007/09/24: TWM: Greens and their hair shirts...
• 2007/09/24: EnvEcon: Is command and control the most effective way to reduce GHG emissions?

  An appearance by IPAT:

• 2007/09/25: CNN: Overpopulation could be people, planet problem
  India on path to become most populous country - Overpopulation will tax water supplies worldwide - Largest population growths occurring in developing nations

Apocalypso anyone?:

• 2007/09/21: TheAge: The end is nigh. Be positive

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2007/09/28: BDL: Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Washington Post Edition)
• 2007/09/28: ClimateP: Yet one more reason the Washington Times will never be confused with the N.Y. Times
• 2007/09/27: IR^2: Debunking Business Week Misinformation
• 2007/09/24: BDL: Why Oh Why Can't we Have a Better Press Corps? Joseph Nocera Edition [media]

  Here is something for your library:

• 2007/09/30: CanWest: Big, bad oil in all its glory [Book Review] _Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (and doesn't seem to care)_ by William Marsden
• 2007/09/24: GristMill: [Book Plug] _Capitalism As If the World Matters_ by Jonathon Porritt [we need to reshape capitalism to deliver a sustainable future]

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2007/09/28: ENN: Federal Courts And Climate Change Suits
• 2007/09/28: ENN: Conservationists Sue Bush Administration for Suppression of Global Warming Documents
• 2007/09/24: WarmingLaw: Are Global Warming Lawsuits Really a Nuisance?

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2007/09/28: TEB: FPL, PG&E and Ausra Commit to Develop 1,500 MW of Solar Power
• 2007/09/28: REA: FPL Group Invests $1.5 Billion in Solar Thermal
• 2007/09/25: REA: The Mediterranean Photovoltaic Power Plant Revolution
• 2007/09/27: BWeek: Big Oil's Big Stall On Ethanol - Even as it pockets billions in subsidies, it's trying to keep E85 out of drivers' tanks
• 2007/09/28: TruthOut: FPL Sees Renewables Soon Competitive With Coal
• 2007/09/27: GP: Lights Out in the Balkans
• 2007/09/26: IR^2: Ted Kennedy Opposes "Big Wind"
• 2007/09/28: BBC: Orkney tidal power plans unveiled
  One of the world's largest tidal energy projects has been unveiled off Orkney in a bid to help make Scotland "the energy powerhouse of Europe".
• 2007/09/27: GristMill: Solar power 2007 - Increasingly popular solar power conference mirrors growth in the industry
• 2007/09/27: TechRev: Storing Solar Power Efficiently
  Thermal-power plants could solve some of the problems with solar power by turning sunlight into steam and storing heat for cloudy days
• 2007/09/27: TechRev: Hydrogen from Algae - Genetically modified algae could be efficient producers of hydrogen and biofuels
• 2007/09/26: PlanetArk: FPL [Energy Inc.] Sees Renewables Soon Competitive With Coal
• 2007/09/26: OilChange: UK: Government Ponders $30 Billion Severn Barrage
• 2007/09/26: BBC: New study for Severn energy plan
  The government has announced a fresh feasibility study into the Severn Barrage, a tidal power plan that could provide about 5% of UK electricity
• 2007/09/25: PhysOrg: Splitting Water with Sunlight
  Hydrogen is one of the most important fuels of the future, and the sun will be one of our most important sources of energy. Why not combine the two to produce hydrogen directly from solar energy without any detours involving electrical current? Why not use a process similar to the photosynthesis used by plants to convert sunlight directly into chemical energy? Researchers from the German Max Planck Institute have now developed a catalyst that may do just that. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, titanium disilicide splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. And the semiconductor doesnà $(Bt (Bjust act as a photocatalyst, it also stores the gases produced, which allows an elegant separation of hydrogen and oxygen
• 2007/09/25: GristMill: Renewable energy allies in strange places? The benefits of using prizes to drive alternative fuel research
• 2007/09/23: GristMill: All you need is love sun - Solar thermal company says its generation/storage combo can power the nation
• 2007/09/24: TreeHugger: New Solar Panels Produced at Less Than $1 Per Watt [still in lab]

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2007/09/27: ABC(Au): 'Clean coal' sending the wrong message: Greenpeace
• 2007/09/26: TheAge: Coal is carbon is emissions is not good
• 2007/09/25: GristMill: Coal is the enemy of the human race: New Republic edition - Editorial questions the sequestration promise
• 2007/09/26: TheAge: Scientist casts doubt over 'clean' coal
  A leading scientist fears the federal government's clean energy target will be dominated by unproven clean coal technology. Australian Academy of Science president Kurt Lambeck said the technology is 20 years away, and even then, would have limitations in curbing carbon emissions.
• 2007/09/24: AutoBG: "If you stop coal, you stop global warming."

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2007/09/28: AutoBG: Accenture forecasts a biofuel bubble burst
• 2007/09/28: Xinhuanet: Biofuel experiment starts in Helsinki public transport
• 2007/09/27: Economist: Ethanol, schmethanol - Everyone seems to think that ethanol is a good way to make cars greener. Everyone is wrong
• 2007/09/26: al Jazeera: Lula's push for biofuel criticised
  Environmentalists and farmers have criticised Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, for promoting the use of biofuels as the answer to global warming.
• 2007/09/26: DerSpiegel: Rethinking Renewables
  Biofuels 'Emit More Greenhouse Gases than Fossil Fuels' A team of researchers led by Nobel-prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen has found that growing and using biofuels emits up to 70 percent more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. They are warning that the cure could end up being worse than the disease.
• 2007/09/25: GristMill: Biofuel: Is it a greenhouse gas, gas, gas? New study claims ethanol and biodiesel may actually boost GHG emissions
• 2007/09/25: AutoBG: Jakarta Post editorial on the palm-oil-for-biofuels question
• 2007/09/12: NatGeo: Green dreams: The dilemma over biofuels
• 2007/09/24: ClimateP: NY Times slams ethanol

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2007/09/28: CSM: Nuclear power surge coming - In the next 15 months, US regulators expect applications for up to 28 new plants
• 2007/09/28: MTobis: Good News Bad News
• 2007/09/25: ERabett: Without comment - NRG Energy, the US power generator, said on Monday it was filing the first application to build a new nuclear plant in the US in 29 years
• 2007/09/25: PlanetArk: NRG Seeks First US Nuclear Plant Permit in Decades

  A bit of an eye opener about Yucca:

• 2007/09/25: Guardian(UK): US nuclear dump plan in danger after seismic shock
  The most expensive public works project in the US was today in disarray after it emerged that a planned giant nuclear dump would be located on a faultline. Rock samples from deep within Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, showed that the fault runs directly beneath the site where the US federal government planned to store 70,000 tonnes of highly radioactive waste

Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2007/09/24: SPTimes: Analysts watch, wince as Mexico's oil supply dwindles - They warn of an irreversible output decline

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2007/09/29: DStar: Energy Efficiency Improvements -- A global approach to low energy consumption and CO2 emission reduction
• 2007/09/28: CNN: Cut your energy bills in half
  Yes, really. These five leak-plugging, warmth-trapping, efficiency-enhancing ideas could slice your home's energy usage by up to 50 percent
• 2007/09/27: ABC(Au): Environmentalists say an energy-efficient society is the key
• 2007/09/24: NEN: California mandates market-based efficiency
• 2007/09/24: NEN: UN Leader calls for mandatory efficiency

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

• 2007/09/28: AutoBG: GM loves Detroit, will build Chevy Volt in the Motor City
• 2007/09/28: CBC: Toyota rolls out upgraded fuel-cell vehicle
• 2007/09/28: PlanetArk: Hyundai to Start Fuel Cell Car Output from 2012 [at the earliest]
• 2007/09/26: CTB: The Wright Way to the Electric Car
• 2007/09/27: TreeHugger: Uncommonly Discussed Eco-Myths: Vehicle Design In The Climate Century
• 2007/09/26: AutoBG: Volvo Trucks' plant in Ghent, Belgium is CO2-free
• 2007/09/26: WarmingLaw: Car Fleets: Trying Harder, and Cooler
• 2007/09/25: PhysOrg: Study: Are plug-ins the next wave of hybrid vehicles?
• 2007/09/25: TreeHugger: Tesla Announce Latest Production Schedule
• 2007/09/25: DailyIndia: U.S. to fund plug-in hybrid car research
• 2007/09/23: SeattlePI: Electric Car: More quiet whirs

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2007/09/23: BBC: Climate change spooks companies
  Ever more companies see climate change as a growing threat to their commercial interests, according to a study carried out on behalf of 315 global investors. But others expect to benefit, says the Global Climate Change Report
• 2007/09/24: AFP: World companies show big interest in climate, US firms lag
• 2007/09/28: Globe&Mail: Germany's green example could be revolutionary
• 2007/09/28: TreeHugger: Good For Green Business: Legit Survey Says Green is Not a Fad
• 2007/09/28: EnergyDaily: Dell Is First Major Computer Company To Go Carbon Neutral
• 2007/09/28: ENN: Survey: US Businesses Conflicted About Adopting Climate Change Practices
• 2007/09/27: EnvFin: S&P calls for better environmental disclosure
• 2007/09/27: EnvFin: HSBC steps into climate change index arena
  HSBC has launched a family of indexes, designed to give investors exposure to companies likely to benefit from climate change
• 2007/09/27: PhysOrg: Dell Moves Up Carbon Timeline
  Dell Inc. unveiled an environmental plan Wednesday that the computer maker said will make its operations carbon-neutral by 2008, a year earlier than it previously promised
• 2007/09/25: CSpin: Corporate Climate Response
• 2007/09/24: Guardian(UK): Corporate giants face up to climate change
• 2007/09/24: OilChange: Wal-Mart Seeks Emissions Data [from its suppliers]

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2007/09/27: WaPo: The Climate Change Peril That Insurers See
  Ten years ago, Peter Levene, chairman of Lloyds of London, was skeptical about global warming theories, but no longer. He believes carbon emissions caused by human activity are warming the Earth and causing severe weather-related events. "At Lloyds, we feel the effects of extreme weather more than most," he said in a March speech. "We don't just live with risk -- we have to pick up the pieces afterwards." Lloyds predicts that the United States will be hit by a hurricane causing $100 billion worth of damage, more than double that of Katrina. Industry analysts estimate that such an event would bankrupt as many as 40 insurers. Lloyd's has warned: "The insurance industry must start actively adjusting in response to greenhouse gas trends if it is to survive."
• 2007/09/24: ABC(Au): Multi-peril insurance scheme urged for farmers
  The former president of the South Australian Farmers Federation, John Lush, wants a drought insurance scheme similar to ones in the US and Canada. The so-called multi-peril insurance allows farmers to contribute in good years and claim payments in hard times. Mr Lush says the drought and the possibility of long-term climate change make it imperative that farming moves with the times

The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2007/09/29: BCLSB: McIntyre Discovers Global Warming Worse Than Suspected!
• 2007/09/28: TreeHugger: The Exxon Files: The Denial Continues
• 2007/09/27: ERabett: Better a good Czech than a bad one
• 2007/09/27: BCLSB: There's A New Denier In Town, Or: Who The Heck is Oliver "Iron Sun" Manuel?
• 2007/09/27: Deltoid: Investor's Business Daily has as much as 100 lies on every page
• 2007/09/26: DeSmogBlog: Bob Carter's Climate Myopia
• 2007/09/26: CSM: Are sunspots prime suspects in global warming?
• 2007/09/26: Guardian(UK): Green group attacks oil giant on climate research
  An environmental group today took aim at ExxonMobil with the launch of an online video attacking the oil giant's green credentials. The Exxon Files, from Friends of the Earth Europe, sets out claims that the US-based corporation funds climate change deniers in Europe and the US
• 2007/09/25: DeSmogBlog: "ZERO Oil Money" Behind Singer/Avery Denier Text: Funding Came From Natural Gas
• 2007/09/26: DeSmogBlog: Stupifying Science Alert: Waiting for the Other Shoe
• 2007/09/25: KSJT: AP (and Honolulu Star Bulletin): Sea levels could well go up a meter this century (and a blogstorm erupts from the right)
• 2007/09/25: ClimateP: The Deniers are winning the war of words
• 2007/09/25: FergusB: End of the road for the denialist dinosaurs
• 2007/09/25: inel: Czech scientists want better communication on climate change
• 2007/09/25: MTobis: Certified Alarmism Free!
• 2007/09/25: DeSmogBlog: Lomborg Cool On Polar Bears
• 2007/09/25: DeSmogBlog: Shoot the Messenger: Morano Ignores the Science; Attacks the Reporter
• 2007/09/25: Globe&Mail: Global warming's cooler heads [Lomborg]
• 2007/09/24: KSJT: Chr. Science Monitor: Climate skeptics are just "global warming optimists" but what do the real scientists say?
• 2007/09/24: GristMill: It's hard out here for a denier - The ongoing humiliations of the tattered 'climate skeptic' movement
• 2007/09/24: Deltoid: Monckton's fantasy world
• 2007/09/23: Deltoid: To Rasool
• 2007/09/24: Stoat: Return of the dead: global cooling
• 2007/09/24: DeSmogBlog: Heartland's Visual Aids for the Ideologically Impaired

  The saga of Pat Michaels unfolds:

• 2007/09/28: WorldsFair: The Fall of the State Climatologist Who Wasn't
• 2007/09/29: Deltoid: Pat Michaels update
• 2007/09/27: TruthOut: Controversial State Climatologist Steps Down
• 2007/09/28: WarmingLaw: Virginia State Climatologist Resigns
• 2007/09/27: ERabett: Listen to the bunny (Part XIV)
• 2007/09/27: DeSmogBlog: Pat Michaels Ousted as Virginia State Climatologist For Industry Funding
• 2007/09/27: DailyProgress: Former climatologist [Patrick J. Michaels] will pursue research work - Climatologist out after 28 years

  An anti-Hansen campaign is being waged:

• 2007/09/28: Denialism: If you can't beat 'em, smear 'em
• 2007/09/28: Deltoid: The Exxon funded swift boating of James Hansen
• 2007/09/27: ClimateP: Swift-Boating James Hansen

  Then there was the usual news and commentary:

• 2007/09/12: NatGeo: Carbon's New Math: To deal with climate change, the first step is to do the numbers
• 2007/09/28: BobPark: What's New
  #1) Subsidies: Farmers get fat while livestock go hungry #4) Balance: Climate feedback may not be as bad as thought
• 2007/09/29: ClimateP: I'll show you my goal if you show me yours
• 2007/09/23: FuturePundit: On The Non-Inevitability Of Global Warming
• 2007/09/29: BuffNews: "Go local," author McKibben urges, to stop global warming - High oil prices favor local production
• 2007/09/27: CChange: Overextension: our American way of life is not sustainable
• 2007/09/28: Atmoz: Wildfire drive summer organic carbon aerosol variability in Western U.S.
• 2007/09/28: KSJT: Chr. Science Monitor, Wall St. Journal: What going on with sunspots and climate anyway?
• 2007/09/28: MTobis: Help from the Tundra
• 2007/09/27: Yahoo: Big carbon cuts: scary, but doable
• 2007/09/27: CasaubonsBook: How Fast is Global Warming Happening?
• 2007/09/26: GristMill: Charity won't cut it - Private sector money will not solve the climate crisis
• 2007/09/27: inel: IOP and EurActiv framing climate science
• 2007/09/27: FergusB: Why the right policies are important, and what makes them "right"
• 2007/09/27: C411: Support Building for Mandatory Caps
• 2007/09/26: CCurrents: Earth Calls For Radical Social Change And Spiritual Transformation
• 2007/09/26: CCurrents: Let's Respect Our Mother Earth by Evo Morales, President of Bolivia
• 2007/09/25: DVoice: Global Warming: The Great Equalizer [limits]
• 2007/09/26: TruthOut: Women Turn Up Gender-Equity Heat at Climate Talks
• 2007/09/26: PhysOrg: World leaders need to remain alert to latest scientific thought on climate change
• 2007/09/25: GristMill: Right message, wrong vehicle - Envronmental Defense's climate ads go negative, miss the mark
• 2007/09/26: inel: Classic quote: politician's advice to tourist industry executives
• 2007/09/26: ERabett: Speed and a few other things kill
• 2007/09/29: TheAge: The Earth is out of time
• 2007/09/29: WaPo: The Race Against Warming by Bill McKibben
• 2007/09/25: LNB: Engineers vs Druids
• 2007/09/25: CCM: Who's Unpatriotic Now? [SLR]
• 2007/09/26: CCM: Readers Saw Through My Framing Game
• 2007/09/26: TerraDaily: Scientists Call For 80 Percent Drop In US Emissions By 2050 To Avoid Dangerous Warming
• 2007/09/26: TreeHugger: Learning From the Past [Lester R. Brown]
• 2007/09/26: Eureka: World leaders need to remain alert to latest scientific thought on climate change
• 2007/09/25: KSJT: LATimes: On that voluntary side of energy and climate reactions. Sometimes, it works - like in homebuilding.
• 2007/09/25: TruthOut: The Greatest Dying
• 2007/09/25: ABC(Au): Hot, dry weather likely to worsen: study
• 2007/09/25: FPB: The guys who matter when it comes to climate change
• 2007/09/25: inel: We are defined by our response to climate change
• 2007/09/25: TreeHugger: Small Island Nations "Can Only Do So Much" To Impede Climate Change
• 2007/09/25: ENN: Japan weather seen warmer in Oct to Dec: forecaster
• 2007/09/25: BDL: Uncertainty Is Not Our Friend in Climate Models
• 2007/09/24: Atmoz: How to Stand an Egg on its End on the Autumnal Equinox [Milankovitch]
• 2007/09/24: KSJT: Arizona Daily Star, BBC: Drought in Amazon turns trees greener. And yes, the experts are puzzled.
• 2007/09/23: GristMill: Fast and furious - Ted Glick enters Day 17 of climate fast
• 2007/09/24: CSpin: Big week for climate news in U.S.
• 2007/09/23: CSpin: Hope and despair in AP wire stories on global warming
• 2007/09/24: Stoat: New constraints on the gas age-ice age difference along the EPICA ice cores, 0-50 kyr
• 2007/09/24: FergusB: Are we living in the Age of "endarkenment"?
• 2007/09/24: TreeHugger: Forest-Smart Buying Can Lower Your Carbon Footprint
• 2007/09/23: Yahoo: Scientists hopeful despite climate signs
  "It's hard at times," said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. "You can't give up hope because what else is there in life if you give up hope? When you give up hope, that's quitting and scientists don't like to quit."
  NASA's James Hansen, who forecasts some of the bleakest outlooks on global warming, said in an e-mail: "I am always surprised when people get depressed rather than energized to do something. It's not too late to stabilize climate." "I am not about to give up," Hansen wrote. He has hope, he says, because he has grandchildren.
  How about Al Gore? Does he lose hope? "No, because we can't afford to," said the former vice president, who has helped bring global warming to center stage. "It's a genuine planetary emergency."

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

• CDP: Carbon Disclosure Project
• SkepticalScience: Arguments from Global Warming Skeptics
• This, our Earth
• LNB: Long Now Blog
• UCSUSA: Global Warming 101 - A Target for U.S. Emissions Reductions
• DGESL: Climate Change and Sea Level
• Wunderground: Wind shear tutorial
• WattHead
• Stefan Rahmstorf - List of Publications
• JEB: James' Empty Blog
• Konrad Steffen Research Group, CIRES/University of Colorado
• NASA:GSFC: ICESat (Ice, Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite)
• Publications - Innsbruck Tropical Glaciology Group (many in .pdf)

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

PS. You can access the previous postings of this series here

"You can make money out of climate change, Capitalism can change with a changing market. Lehman Brothers has more environmental experts than the UNEP." -Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP

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