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  2. Another Week of Anthropocene Antics, November 3, 2013

Another Week of Anthropocene Antics, November 3, 2013

By illconsidered on November 4, 2013.

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

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Another Week of Anthropocene Antics

Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not Wisdom

November 3, 2013

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Here's a wee chuckle for ye:

Looking ahead to COP19 at (Warsaw) and future international climate negotiations:

There is still some Post AR5 talk:

There has been another IPCC leak. This time WG2 and it's more disturbing:

The 2013 Maplecroft Risk Atlas came out this week:

The Kunming Declaration codifies DNA barcoding:

  • 2013/10/31: [link to 128k pdf] DNA-Barcoding: The Kunming declaration
  • IBOL: The International Barcode of Life - Making Every Species Count
  • 2013/11/01: Xinhuanet: International DNA barcoding agreement signed
    Kunming -- Experts have urged strengthening international scientific cooperation in species database sharing at the recently concluded fifth International Barcode of Life Conference (IBLC) in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Held for the first time on the Chinese mainland, the four-day conference in the provincial capital city of Kunming, has drawn up the Kunming Declaration to promote unity in the global barcoding community. "The declaration in Kunming is one of the most important events in the history of biodiversity science. We are following a global trend to open up data. It's critical to protection of biodiversity in the future," Canadian scientist Paul Hebert remarked on Oct.31. The Kunming Declaration, signed by 400 scientists from more than 40 regions and countries, calls for international cooperation in DNA barcoding technology and industry standards. DNA barcoding, initially proposed by Paul Hebert in 2003, is a way to identify species by a short genetic marker. The technology has been adopted in fields such as species identification and biological medicine, according to Li Deshu, dean of Kunming Institute of Botany.

The Teng et al. paper on Wavenumber 5 Rossby waves grabbed a few people:

Simon Donner of the Maribo website has been awarded the Woody Guthrie Award to a Thinking Blogger:

The annual call for killing daylight saving time will likely be ignored, as usual:

The Maldives saga drags on:

How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

And on the Bottom Line:

Subsidies, tax exemptions, loan guarantees & grants weave a difficult to penetrate web:

So, If we put a price on nature, will it deal with externalities and lead to greater conservation
or will it lead to greater exploitation or what?

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

A note on theFukushima disaster:

    It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.]
    And the IAEA is now saying 40 years too.
    [Now some people are talking about a century or more. Sealing it in concrete for 500 years.]
    We'll see.
    At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
    Meanwhile...
    It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
    How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
    Do they have an agenda?
    Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
    Do they want to write a good news story?
    Do they want to write a bad news story?
    Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
    Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
    One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
    If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

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

The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

As for the charismatic megafauna:

That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

While in Antarctica:

The food crisis is ongoing:

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

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

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

In the Western Pacific, Typhoon Krosa [29W] took a run at Luzon.
predictions vary as to where it will head next...Hainan? Vietnam?

Also in the Western Pacific, there are a couple (unreported) numbered not named storms:

In the Eastern Pacific, Raymond headed out to sea and died. Another TD [18E] formed:

  • 2013/11/01: NASA: Two Satellites See New Eastern Pacific Tropical Depression Form
  • 2013/10/30: Eureka: NASA eyes a 'decoupled' Tropical Depression Raymond
  • 2013/10/30: MODIS: Tropical Storm Raymond (17E) off Mexico [on Oct.20]
  • 2013/10/29: NASA: NASA Sees Tropical Storm Raymond Fading Fast

    While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

  • 2013/11/02: MODIS: Super Typhoon Lekima (28W) in the Pacific Ocean [on Oct.24]
  • 2013/11/01: Wunderground: Atlantic November Hurricane Outlook
  • 2013/11/01: MODIS: Tropical Storm Thirteen (13L) in the Atlantic Ocean [on Oct.21]
  • 2013/10/31: al Jazeera: Where have all the hurricanes gone?
    The Atlantic basin has seen far fewer storms than normal, leaving meteorologists struggling to explain why.
  • 2013/10/28: Eureka: NASA catches glimpse of the brief life of Southern Indian Ocean's first tropical cyclone [01S]
  • 2013/10/28: NASA: Extra-Tropical Storm Lekima Weakens in Northern Pacific

    This week in notable weather:

    This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

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

    As for GHGs:

    Regarding the solar hypothesis:

    What's new in the Weather Machine?

    And on the ENSO front:

    As for the temperature record:

    What's new in proxies?

    Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

    While in the paleoclimate:

    What's the State of the Oceans?:

    What's new in Biodiversity?

    And on the extinction watch:

    The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant concern. And then, there are the Neonicotinoids:

    More GW impacts are being seen:

    And then there are the world's forests:

    Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

    Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

    Aerosols affect the climate, but they also affect people's health:

    Changes in natural cycles are showing up:

    As for heatwaves and wild fires:

    Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:

    Glaciers are melting:

    These extreme rainfall events are becoming all too frequent:

    As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

    First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
    Second, put a price on carbon
    Third, begin to reduce the human population
    And elsewhere on the mitigation front:

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

    Consider transportation & GHG production:

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

    Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

    What's new in restoration?

    Meanwhile in the journals:

    And other significant documents:

    As for miscellaneous science:

    In the science organizations:

    Regarding Orihel:

    Regarding Bolin:

    Meanwhile at the UN:

    And on the carbon trading front this week we have scams galore:

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

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

    South [& East] China Sea tension persists:

    In the "global competition for natural resources":

    These 'free trade' treaties feature fundamentally anti-democratic dispute resolution mechanisms:

    BC and several western US states have signed a feel good agreement on climate change:

    Who's teed off at the NSA this week?

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

    What are the activists up to?

    The move to divest from fossil fuel investments is growing slowly:

    Polls! We have polls!

    Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:

    And on the groundwater front:

    Among the world's religions:

    While in the UK:

    And in Europe:

    Meanwhile in Australia:

    Now we get to watch the suppository of wisdom destroy what little Australia has done to fight climate change:

    Wrangling over carbon policy continues:

    After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are far from finished:

    Some late election results:

    And in China:

    While in Japan:

    And elsewhere in Asia:

    While in Africa:

    And South America:

    In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:

    The New Bruinswick fracking protestors aren't going away:

    About that GHG report:

    About CETA:

    The West-East pipeline is suddenly a focus of much dispute:

    Regarding pipelines in general. See also:

    Regarding the ELA:

    • Save ELA
    • 2013/10/17: TStar: Freshwater research centre saved, but not the research
      The claim that the Conservative government deserves credit for "saving" the Experimental Lakes Area is grossly misleading. The doors to the Experimental Lakes Area may be open, but scientists can't do their science. Recently, many people -- myself included -- cheered after Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced an interim agreement to resuscitate this world-renowned freshwater science centre. The short-term agreement allows the International Institute for Sustainable Development to oversee lake monitoring while the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada continues its remediation work.
      [...]
      The ability of scientists to conduct whole-ecosystem experiments at ELA, and nowhere else, stemmed from a legal agreement between the province of Ontario and the government of Canada. The land and lakes of the ELA are owned by Ontario, but under this agreement the federal government was permitted to conduct experiments on the lakes and assumed responsibility for the remediation of the site. Last month, the government of Canada -- out of either woeful ignorance of the tremendous value of whole-ecosystem experimentation or worse, purposeful crippling of Canada's science capacity -- officially withdrew from this long-standing agreement.

    This is notable, after the Harper gang voted down that accountability bill:

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

    Now that Christy Clark has a mandate, what will she do?

    Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

    Also in Alberta:

    In Manitoba:

    In Ontario, Wynne is struggling to establish herself. Energy still looms large:

    While in la Belle Province:

    In the North:

    And on the American political front:

    Everybody had something to say on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy:

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

    The GOP War on Women continues. See also:

    The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:

    Houston, we have a problem:

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

    The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

    As for what is going on in Congress:

    What are the lobbyists pushing?

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

    In nature, there is no garbage:

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

    Apocalypso anyone?

    How do the corporate media measure up?

    Here is something for your library:

    And for your film & video enjoyment:

    As for podcasts:

    Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

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

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

    What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?

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

    On the coal front:

    On the gas and oil front:

    In the gas and oil corps:

    And in pipeline news:

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

    Biofuel bickering abounds:

    The answer my friend...

    Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

    The nuclear energy controversy continues:

    Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

    Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:

    Feed-In-Tariffs (Net Metering & Time-of-Use Tariffs) are being variously implemented around the world:

    How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?

    And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

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

    As for Energy Storage:

    What do we have in (weekly) lists?

    How to talk to uncle Bob, the X ...
    where X is one of
    septics, greenhouse mafia, permanently uninformed, carbon lobby, denialist, fossil fools, climate contrarian, biostitutes, pseudoskeptic, the Slick 60 Climate Change Denial Gang, delusionists, climate cranks, bellignorant, delusionosphere, denyosphere, Warmocaust Collusionists, Denier-Industrial-Complex Kooks (DICKs), Anti-Science Syndrome (ASS), carbonistas, unpersuadables, Climosaurs, Denialati, confusionists, buffoonasphere, anti-science illiterati, scitards, Dismissives, climate misleaders, climate ostrich, etc...

    Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

  • 2013/11/01: MWEN: As EPA lingers on coal ash, Michigan group raises alarm

    This week in intimidation:

  • 2013/11/01: GReadfearn: Scientists' association calls for apology from David Murray over climate slur
  • 2013/11/01: TP:JR: Australian Scientists Demand Apology From Business Leader For 'Slur' On Their Profession
  • 2013/11/01: CCP: The subterranean war on science, by Stephan Lewandowsky, Michael E. Mann
  • 2013/10/31: DeSmogBlog: Australian Scientists Call For Apology Over Business Leader's "Slur" of Climate Science Profession

    So what's with all the inactivity?

    As for climate miscellanea:

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

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