Another Week of Climate Disruption News, May 18, 2014

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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Confronting a New Age of Consequences

May 18, 2014

• Chuckles, COP20+, WAIS, CEM, NCA, Galapagos, Azorella
• Energiewende, Bottom Line, Subsidies, Economics, Cook
• Fukushima: Note, News
• Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food: Crisis, Fisheries, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production
• Hurricanes, Extreme Weather, New Weather, GHGs, Aerosols
• Weather Machine, Climate Sensitivity, ENSO, Temperatures, Proxies, Paleoclimate
• Attribution, Oceans, Ocean Currents, Extinctions, Bees & CCD, Insects, Overshoot
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Tornadoes, Wildfires
• Corals, Acidification, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Designed Endurance, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Free Science, Hansen, Friedman
• International Politics: UN, Bank Tax, Hormuz, South China Sea, Ukraine, Treaties, Solar Spat, Misc.
• Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Resistance, Divestment, H2O Biz, Groundwater, Education
• National Politics: Britain, Europe, Australia, Abbott, Budget, MDBP, Tas Forest Deal, CSG
• India, China, Japan, Asia, Middle East, Africa, South America
• Canada, Lac-Mégantic, Science Policy, Abortion, Opposition, Protest, Pipeline Rules, Mowat
• Pipelines, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Ontario, North, Canadiana
• America, Keystone, Spills & Leaks, Birth Control, Coal Exports, CNA, 2016, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Ecological Economics, PostCap, Children, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts
• Energy, Investments, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Oil Transportation, US Tar Sands, Peak Oil
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, LENR, Grid, Utilities, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
• Business, Insurance, Other Lists, Quotes, Carbon Lobby, Bengtsson, Intimidation, Inaction, Misc., Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig

 

Live and direct from the laugh, it's funny, damnit department:

• 2014/05/17: ERabett: (cartoon - Breen) Propositions and Dots
• 2014/05/16: SeppoNet: (cartoon - Seppo) Celebrate Nature
• 2014/05/16: uComics: (cartoon - Wiley) Another Melting Glacier Theory
• 2014/05/15: TruthDig: (cartoon - Bennett) Global Warming
• 2014/05/14: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Shelf Life
• 2014/05/12: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) Explaining Climate Change
• 2014/05/11: QuarkSoup: (cartoon - ?) It's in MY backyard!

And in the geopolitical irony department:

• 2014/05/14: EUO: Ukraine to use EU and IMF money to pay for Russian gas
  

  Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:

  • 2014/05/16: RTCC: Green Climate Fund could end up financing coal and gas, warn NGOs
    Concerns India and China could push for looser green safeguards as GCF board gathers to rubber-stamp regulations The UN's Green Climate Fund could end up backing coal and oil industries unless effective safeguards are agreed at a meeting next week, says a coalition of over 250 civil society groups.
  • 2014/05/16: RTCC: Trillions at stake as Green Climate Fund board meet in Korea
    Observers say success of 2015 UN climate change deal hinges on successful launch of GCF later this year Trillions of dollars aimed at boosting the global green economy will be at stake when the UN's Climate Fund (GCF) board gather in Songdo, South Korea on Sunday.
  • 2014/05/15: RTCC: Japan, Australia urge developing countries to do more on climate
    Japan and Australia urged developing countries to do more to cut carbon emissions on Wednesday, taking a hard-line stance which may reduce the chances for global coordinated action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
  • 2014/05/15: UDW: Peru: Indigenous Organizations to Present Joint Climate Change Agenda [at COP20]
  • 2014/05/12: RTCC: Ban Ki-moon's [September] UN climate summit: starting to take shape?
  • 2014/05/12: NorthEastern: How climate talks can be more successful

  Two papers on West Antarctica's melting glaciers grabbed the headlines:

  • 2014/05/12: Science: (ab$) Marine Ice Sheet Collapse Potentially Underway for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica by Ian Joughin et al.
  • 2014/05/12: WoL:GRL: (ab$) Widespread, rapid grounding line retreat of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica from 1992 to 2011 by E. Rignot et al.
  • 2014/05/18: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Dr. Mauri Pelto on Antarctic Melt Part 2
  • 2014/05/17: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Dr. Mauri Pelto on Antarctic Melt, Part 1
  • 2014/05/17: CBC:Q&Q: [mp3] West Antarctic Ice Slipping Away
  • 2014/05/17: Guardian(UK): Global warming: it's a point of no return in West Antarctica. What happens next?
  • 2014/05/16: JCBaez: West Antarctic Ice Sheet News
  • 2014/05/16: IOTD: Decline of West Antarctic Glaciers Appears Irreversible
  • 2014/05/15: CCP: Elizabeth Kolbert: The West Antarctic ice sheet melt: Defending the drama
  • 2014/05/14: WSWS: Study warns of "unstoppable" West Antarctic ice shelf melting
  • 2014/05/14: RTCC: New Antarctic studies suggest more rapid sea level rise this century
  • 2014/05/14: GreenGrok: Scientists Find Melting of Antarctic Ice Sheet Accelerating
  • 2014/05/14: Hypergeometric: Pine Island, Thwaites, Haynes, Pope, Smith, and Kohler glaciers on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) [vid]
  • 2014/05/13: OilChange: Passing the "Point of No Return" on Climate Change, Lets Build A New Runway
  • 2014/05/13: CSM: West Antarctic glaciers in 'irreversible' retreat, say scientists
  • 2014/05/13: RScribbler: Grim News From NASA: West Antarctica's Entire Flank Collapsing Toward Southern Ocean, At Least 15 Feet of Sea Level Rise Already Locked-in Worldwide
  • 2014/05/13: RTCC: West Antarctic glaciers have 'passed point of no return'
  • 2014/05/13: DeSmogBlog: Scientists Fear Massive Sea Level Rise from "Unstoppable" Melt of West Antarctica Ice Sheet
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Melting Antarctic ice appears unstoppable
  • 2014/05/13: Wunderground: Slow-Motion Collapse of West Antarctic Glaciers is Unstoppable, 2 New Studies Say
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): West Antarctic ice sheet collapse 'unstoppable'
  • 2014/05/13: Xinhuanet: Collapse of West Antarctic Ice Sheet unstoppable: studies
  • 2014/05/12: CSM: West Antarctic glacier loss: 'We have passed the point of no return'
  • 2014/05/12: NASA:JPL: West Antarctic Glacier Loss Appears Unstoppable
  • 2014/05/12: CNN: Ice melt in part of Antarctica 'appears unstoppable,' NASA says
    Warm currents, other factors have caused chain reaction, NASA says - Region has enough ice to raise global sea levels by 4 feet, scientists say - Researchers: Melting could take several hundred years, but could have impact this century
  • 2014/05/12: CDreams: Rising Sea Level Threat: Glaciers 'Beyond the Point of No Return' -- Pair of studies out Monday foresees "collapse" in West Antarctica
  • 2014/05/12: CCP: Time: Antarctic Ice Sheet Loss Is 'Unstoppable,' Study Says
  • 2014/05/12: CCP: Bloomberg: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt Past 'Point of No Return,' NASA Says
  • 2014/05/12: CCP: NYT: Scientists Warn of Inexorably Rising Oceans as Antarctic Ice Melts
  • 2014/05/12: AGU: New study indicates loss of West Antarctic glaciers appears unstoppable
  • 2014/05/12: ERabett: Something Scary Comes This Way
  • 2014/05/12: BBC: 'Nothing can stop retreat' of West Antarctic glaciers
    Key glaciers in West Antarctica are in an irreversible retreat, a study team led by the US space agency (NASA) says.
  • 2014/05/12: CBC: Huge Antarctic ice sheet collapsing -- Predictions of sea level rise will need to be adjusted upward
  • 2014/05/12: QuarkSoup: Antarctic Ice Sheet Passes a Tipping Point
  • 2014/05/12: QuarkSoup: 1978 Antarctic Prediction Fulfilled
  • 2014/05/12: KSJT: Lots of Ink: Two journal papers say slow but unstoppable ice sheet collapse in Antarctica sector seems underway years early
  • 2014/05/12: NatGeo: West Antarctica Glaciers Collapsing, Adding to Sea-Level Rise -- Scientists warn that the Thwaites glacier is sliding into the ocean
  • 2014/05/12: UW: West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse is under way
  • 2014/05/12: Grist: The West Antarctic glaciers are breaking up with us
  • 2014/05/12: SciNow: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Collapsing
  • 2014/05/12: NatureN: Crucial West Antarctic glaciers are retreating unstoppably
    Modelling and radar data from Amundsen Sea suggest current melting will run away.
  • 2014/05/12: NSF: Airborne radar surveys and data-based models indicate West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse is underway
  • 2014/05/12: NYT: Scientists Warn of Rising Oceans as Antarctic Ice Melts
    The collapse of large parts of the ice sheet in West Antarctica appears to have begun and is almost certainly unstoppable, with global warming accelerating the pace of the disintegration, two groups of scientists reported Monday. The finding, which had been feared by some scientists for decades, means that a rise in global sea level of at least 10 feet may now be inevitable. The rise may continue to be relatively slow for at least the next century or so, the scientists said, but sometime after that it will probably speed up so sharply as to become a crisis.
  • 2014/05/12: NatureN: Key West Antarctic glaciers retreating unstoppably -- Radar observations of Amundsen Sea area suggest current melting will run away
  • 2014/05/12: UCI: West Antarctic glacier loss appears unstoppable, UCI-NASA Study Finds -- Volume of melted ice enough to raise global sea level by 4 feet

  Apparently there was a Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in Korea this week:

  • 2014/05/14: RTCC: Ministers miss chance for cooperation on clean energy at Korea summit
    High level meeting on clean technology ends in little but a decision to install "cool roofs" in Mexico Energy ministers failed to devise new policies to help clean up the world's energy supply, instead taking small steps in a long list of joint projects, at a meeting in the republic of Korea. The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) round of meetings was founded by the administration of US President Barack Obama in late 2009 as a forum for the world's biggest economies to agree steps to improve efficiency and cut carbon emissions from the energy sector.

  More comments and analysis on the US National Climate Assessment:

  • 2014/05/17: Grist: How climate change is already threatening human health
  • 2014/05/15: ICN: What the U.S. Climate Assessment Has to Do With the KXL Decision
    The pipeline originated in the Bush era, when similar climate reports had the status of orphan or pariah. Times have changed.
  • 2014/05/14: CSW: 2014 National Climate Assessment key findings, Part 4: Response Strategies
  • 2014/05/13: CSW: 2014 National Climate Assessment key findings, Part 3: Regions
  • 2014/05/13: CSW: 2014 National Climate Assessment key findings, Part 2: Sectors
  • 2014/05/12: CSW: 2014 National Climate Assessment key findings, Part 1: Overview and Our Changing Climate
  • 2014/05/13: WSWS: US climate report points to human activity as primary cause of climate change
  • 2014/05/11: CCurrents: The 3rd National Climate Assessment - Denial That Limits Needed Action
  • 2014/05/11: Wunderground:RR: The National Climate Assessment - Thank You

  The Galapagos are under threat:

  • 2014/05/16: TreeHugger: Galapagos threat 'could unleash a disaster'
  • 2014/05/15: PLNA: State of Emergency Declared in Galapagos, Ecuador
    Ecuador's National Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR) today declared a state of emergency in the province of Galapagos due to ship grounding of Galapaface I on May 9. The accident is expected to cause environmental damage and disruption to the fragile ecosystem of the Galapagos Islands, according to the technical report of the Committee for Emergency Operations (COE).
  • 2014/05/15: BBC: Galapagos in 'emergency' over stranded petrol tanker

  Here's a good mystery that needs solving:

  • 2014/05/17: ABC(Au): Macquarie Island faces new battle against mysterious azorella plant dieback

  How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

  • 2014/05/14: EnergyPost: Biomass: the hidden face of the Energiewende
  • 2014/05/13: GET: German power prices negative over weekend
    Germany set a new record on Sunday, May 11, by getting nearly three quarters of its electricity from renewable sources during a midday peak. Nonetheless, Craig Morris says the resulting negative prices are both good news and bad news.
  • 2014/05/11: RealEconomics: The Germans are in the streets again

  And on the Bottom Line:

  • 2014/05/16: PSinclair: S&P: Emerging Economies Credit Ratings Will Suffer from Climate Change
  • 2014/05/14: TP:JR: The $4 Trillion Mistake: Climate Action Delayed Is Climate Action Denied
  • 2014/05/13: Grist: End fossil fuel burning, save $71 trillion -- and preserve civilization as we know it
  • 2014/05/12: CSM: IEA: Clean energy shift will save world $71 trillion through 2050
  • 2014/05/12: RTCC: IEA: Decarbonising the economy will save $71 trillion by 2050
    Economic growth can be decoupled from emissions, while natural gas could lose 'low carbon' status by 2025 as renewables boom Replacing fossil fuels with renewables as the world's primary source of energy will not only save the planet from dangerous levels of warming - it will also save the global economy US$ 71trillion by 2050.
  • 2014/05/11: BWeek: Power Decarbonization Cost Rises 22% to $44 Trillion, IEA Says
    The cost of cutting carbon emissions from power generation enough to restrict global warming to safe levels is rising because growing coal use outweighs the progress in renewables, the International Energy Agency said.

  Who's getting the subsidies, tax exemptions, loan guarantees & grants?

  • 2014/05/15: Tyee: IMF Pegs Canada's Fossil Fuel Subsidies at $34 Billion

  What's new in the tussle between economists and climatologists?

  • 2014/05/15: CCurrents: The Hidden Costs Of Cheater Economics On Human Health And The Future Of Life On Earth
  • 2014/05/12: EnvEcon: "Crazy Climate Economics"
  • 2014/05/12: ERabett: Richard Tol Stakes Himself on a Hill, Ethon Takes a Nibble
  • 2014/05/11: NYT: Crazy Climate Economics

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

  • 2014/05/17: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #20 by John Hartz
  • 2014/05/16: SkS: 75% of Americans want to see climate change taught in schools, and four more graphs by Ros Donald
  • 2014/05/15: SkS: The passing of a climate giant, Tom Crowley by John Abraham
  • 2014/05/14: SkS: 6 major reports in a year: is it possible to have too much information about climate change? by gpwayne
  • 2014/05/13: SkS: 97% - A Statistically Representative Debate On Global Warming by Rob Painting
  • 2014/05/12: SkS: Sense and climate sensitivity - more evidence we're in for a hot future by , dana1981
  • 2014/05/11: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly Digest #19 by John Hartz

  A note on theFukushima disaster:

  It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.]
  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:

   

  • 2014/05/18: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Thyroid Cancers Increase Again
  • 2014/05/17: FukuLeaks: Some Fukushima Workers To Get Lifelong Health Checks
  • 2014/05/16: FukuLeaks: After Fukushima Manga Becomes Outspoken Media In Japan [Fuku & media]
  • 2014/05/16: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Fallout; GE Explains How They Manipulate The Media [Fuku & media]
  • 2014/05/16: CBC: Fukushima cancer risk not as serious as thought, UN [SCEAR] says
  • 2014/05/16: BBerg: Tepco to Begin Piping Groundwater Into Sea to Avoid Irradiation
  • 2014/05/15: EneNews: New study reveals deaths and mutations "increased sharply' from exposure to Fukushima contamination, "especially at low doses" ...
  • 2014/05/14: EneNews: CNN: "Problem from hell at Fukushima"...
  • 2014/05/14: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Town Demands Decontamination To Pre-Disaster Levels
  • 2014/05/14: FukuLeaks: Japan Government To Take Over Fukushima Decommissioning & Costs
  • 2014/05/14: FukuLeaks: Work Begins Towards Removing Melted Fuel At Fukushima Daiichi
  • 2014/05/13: EneNews: Medical Expert: Hundreds ill after Fukushima nuclear plant rubble burned in major Japanese city -- Suffering nosebleeds, problems with eyes, throats and skin...
  • 2014/05/13: FukuLeaks: Taiwan Keeps High Level Travel Warning For Fukushima
  • 2014/05/13: FukuLeaks: TEPCO Could Begin Dumping Bypass Water As Early As May 20th
  • 2014/05/13: CNN: Custom-built robot to probe Fukushima leaks
    Robot to poke its arm into basement of ruined Japanese nuclear reactor - The arm can lift 100 pounds and cut steel - The goal is to find a long-suspected coolant leak in Fukushima's No. 2 reactor - "I think it certainly will solve part of that mystery," engineer says
  • 2014/05/13: FukuLeaks: Muon Detectors To Be Installed At Fukushima Daiichi Next Year
    TEPCO and contractor Toshiba plan to install muon detectors next year at Fukushima Daiichi. This technology will allow scientists to "image" the melted reactor fuel and hopefully identify the location of the fuel.
  • 2014/05/12: EneNews: VICE: Japan mother may be jailed for "tweet critical of nuclear lobbyist" -- Fukushima police travel 1,000 miles to interrogate her, examine computer...
  • 2014/05/12: FukuLeaks: Plans To Flood Fukushima Containments Scrapped
    [...]
    It now appears that the plan has officially turned away from attempting to flood containment and instead look for ways to retrieve fuel from containment without the ability to flood the structure with water.
    [...]
    Mainichi reports the change of tactic and explains the newest theory on how they will attempt to remove the estimated 450 tons of melted fuel in each unit's containment structure.
  • 2014/05/12: WSWS: Japan: Fukushima worker sues TEPCO over radiation exposure
  • 2014/05/11: EneNews: Press Conference by Former Official: I'm bleeding from nose every day, many in Fukushima have similar symptoms -- Author: My nose bled for days, it wouldn't stop; Staff had same problem...
  • 2014/05/11: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Nuclear News Roundup

  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

  • 2014/05/14: ASI: SIPN presentation
  • 2014/05/13: Dosbat: PIOMAS April 2014 Gridded Data

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

  • 2014/05/14: Cornell: Control methane now, greenhouse gas expert warns
  • 2014/05/14: NatureN: Climate science: Understand Arctic methane variability
    Expand ground monitoring of polar sources of this greenhouse gas to find out how climate change will influence its release, says Torben R. Christensen.

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

  • 2014/05/17: CCP: Nunauvut: Chinese company takes a lead role in the Roche Bay mining project
  • 2014/05/15: RT: Climate change may cause conflict in Arctic, threats to security worldwide - former US generals [CNA]

  While in Antarctica... See also:

  • 2014/05/15: QuarkSoup: The 1983 Warning About West Antarctic Melting
  • 2014/05/13: CBC: Antarctic [PIG] iceberg break-off captured in NASA images

  The food crisis is ongoing:

  • 2014/05/16: UN: Amid ongoing access constraints, UN convoy moves vital food aid into north-west Syria
  • 2014/05/15: BBC: El Nino's threat to major food crop yields
    El Nino events can have a significant impact on the yields of certain major food crops, a study has shown.
  • 2014/05/15: UN: On Syria visit, UN official stresses need for expanded aid access to Palestinian refugees
  • 2014/05/15: UN: Conflict, drought impact crop prospects in Syria, UN agency says
  • 2014/05/15: UN: UN relief official urges support for over 14 million Yemenis in need of assistance
  • 2014/05/15: TruthDig: Droughts May Slash U.S. Maize Gains [15% in 50 years]
  • 2014/05/15: RTCC: Scientists say can predict crop impacts of El Nino, La Nina
    Farmers may need to plan for variable crop outputs, as potential severity of climate phenomenon intensifies
  • 2014/05/14: al Jazeera: S Sudan faces 'catastrophic levels of hunger'
    Oxfam says aid groups face mammoth task of getting massive levels of emergency aid to people in war-torn Unity state.
  • 2014/05/13: HouseOfDebt: Food Stamps and Failed Economic Policies
  • 2014/05/11: CCP: "A meta-analysis of crop yield under climate change and adaptation," by A. J. Challinor et al., Nature Climate Change, (2014); doi: 10.1038/nclimate2153

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

  • 2014/05/16: EurActiv: Commission proposes full driftnet fishing ban
  • 2014/05/15: CBC: 'Occupation' wording puts Canada at odds with UN fish plan
    Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs won't support 'in situations of occupation' wording in UN plan
  • 2014/05/12: DD: Shells of marine life dissolving off the coast of the U.S.
    "We did not expect to see pteropods being affected to this extent in our coastal region for several decades"
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Big fish kill on Tasmania's east coast
  • 2014/05/13: BBC: Academics say a ban on discarding healthy fish could harm wildlife
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Top End salmon season 'exceptional'

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

  • 2014/05/15: RT: 'Syngenta methods of silencing GMO opposition are unbelievable'
  • 2014/05/15: RT: Argentina environmentalists, farm workers protest Monsanto pesticides
  • 2014/05/14: CPunch: A Peoples' Tribunal -- The Earth vs. Monsanto
  • 2014/05/13: CPunch: Uncharted Waters -- What Will the World Inherit From GE Salmon?
  • 2014/05/13: KSJT: Outside magazine falls for unproven claims of pesticide-gluten link--and more-or-less admits it.[GMOs / media]
  • 2014/05/11: CCurrents: The GMO Biotech Sector Can't Win The Scientific Debate: Co-option, Deception And Collusion As An Alternative Strategy

  Regarding labelling GM food:

  • 2014/05/16: RT: GMO 'right to know' battle heats up in Oregon
    Activists pushing for greater disclosure on genetically modified foods in Oregon said they are working on a petition campaign to require labeling on such products, while one small community has plans to ban GMO food altogether.

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

  • 2014/05/16: FAO: Crisis-hit farmers receive seeds and tools in Central African Republic
    FAO also providing longer-term assistance to rebuild livelihoods and increase resilience in conflict-stricken nation
  • 2014/05/16: WFP: Cross-Border Convoy Moves Food Aid Into Northeast Syria As Access Constraints Intensify
  • 2014/05/16: WFP: Building Resilience Critical to End Hunger and Undernutrition by 2025
  • 2014/05/15: UN: UN expert urges governments to buy local food in public projects
  • 2014/05/12: Ensia: Getting Beyond Just Wheat, Corn and Rice
    Some uncommon grains have environmental advantages that could be beneficial in a changing world. But making the uncommon common can be difficult.
  • 2014/05/12: CBC: Canadian farmers invest in robots to work 'smarter, not harder' -- More and more farms buying automated systems
  • 2014/05/12: Grist: Local to the extreme: This project puts the farm right in the grocery store
  • 2014/05/12: Purdue: Corn dwarfed by temperature dip suitable for growing in caves, mines

  There is an unnumbered storm in the East Pacific, but otherwise it has been quiet.
  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

  • 2014/05/15: TP:JR: NOAA: Tropical Cyclone 'Maximum Intensity' Is Shifting Toward Poles
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Tropical storms shifting away from the equator
  • 2014/05/15: CCP: "The poleward migration of the location of tropical cyclone maximum intensity," by James P. Kossin, Kerry A. Emanuel & Gabriel A. Vecchi, Nature (2014);
  • 2014/05/14: CSM: Hurricanes migrating away from equator, study finds
  • 2014/05/14: NOAANews: NOAA-led study: Tropical cyclone 'maximum intensity' is shifting toward poles
    Researchers find that the average latitude where tropical cyclones achieve maximum intensity has been shifting poleward since 1980
  • 2014/05/14: BBC: Tropical storms migrate toward poles
    Tropical storms have been migrating northwards and southwards towards the poles for the past 30 years, a paper in Nature says.
  • 2014/05/14: CBC: Tropical cyclones are expanding their path of destruction
    Storms are peaking 53 kilometres farther north each decade in the Northern Hemisphere

  This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

  • 2014/05/16: ArcticNews: More extreme weather can be expected
  • 2014/05/14: QuarkSoup: Chart of the Day: U.S. Extreme Weather

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

  • 2014/05/15: RScribbler: Climate Change and a Mangled Jet Stream: Historic May Deluge for Bosnia and Serbia
  • 2014/05/14: RScribbler: Mangled Jet Stream Delivers Record-Shattering Heat, Extreme Wildfires to California

  As for GHGs:

  • 2014/05/16: Hypergeometric: CO2 now
  • 2014/05/13: RTCC: Russia predicts 30% rise in climate-warming gases by 2040
  • 2014/05/13: RTCC: Banning HFCs from 2020 could make big climate impact - study
  • 2014/05/12: Grist: Frackers are flooding the atmosphere with climate-warming methane

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

  • 2014/05/14: MODIS: Dust storm over the Red Sea [on May 4]

  What's new in the Weather Machine?

  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Research shows Antarctica may be the reason for SA dry climate
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Pacific Ocean hot spot causing warming in the Arctic, scientists say
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Stronger winds chilling Australia's rainfall
  • 2014/05/12: Xinhuanet: Antarctica 'stealing' Australia's rain: study
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Scientists find link between Southern Ocean winds and drying Australia
  • 2014/05/11: CCP: Australia: Wilder winds, less rain, as Roaring Forties become Furious Fifties

  Regarding Climate Sensitivity:

  • 2014/05/15: BVerheggen: ClimateDialogue on Climate Sensitivity
  • 2014/05/15: PSinclair: How Sensitive is Climate? New Paper by Andrew Dessler
  • 2014/05/13: ATTPh: I'm confused about Kummer & Dessler
  • 2014/05/12: JEB: A sensitive subject
  • 2014/05/12: CDialogue: Climate Sensitivity and Transient Climate Response

  And on the ENSO front:

  • 2014/05/17: CC&G: Tracking El Nino Forecasts
  • 2014/05/14: IOTD: Is El Niño Developing?
  • 2014/05/13: QuarkSoup: Why 2014 Could Well Be the Warmest Year Yet
  • 2014/05/12: DD: What are the odds that El Niño will occur in 2014? And if it does, how strong will it be?
  • 2014/05/12: Wunderground: Ocean Temperatures Reach El Niño Threshold; El Niño Odds Rise Above 65%
  • 2014/05/11: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Kevin Trenberth on the Coming El Nino, Part 1

  As for the temperature record:

  • 2014/05/16: RScribbler: Deep Ocean Warming is Coming Back to Haunt Us: Record Warmth for 2014 Likely As Equatorial Heat Rises
  • 2014/05/14: TP:JR: Last Month Was The Second Warmest April Ever Recorded
  • 2014/05/14: CCP: April 2014 is the 350th month in a row with its temperature above the long-term average
  • 2014/05/14: Moyhu: USHCN, adjustments, averages, getting it right
  • 2014/05/13: Moyhu: April GISS Temp up by 0.03°C
  • 2014/05/12: RScribbler: NASA GISS Shows April 2014 was Second Hottest on Record Amidst Epic Siberian Heatwave, Wildfires
  • 2014/05/12: QuarkSoup: GISS: Last 5 Years are Warmest Ever
  • 2014/05/12: Moyhu: TempLS global temp stable in April

  What's new in proxies?

  • 2014/05/16: CCP: Climategate Revisited: New Theory Explains The Tree Ring Controversy

  While in the paleoclimate:

  • 2014/05/14: SMU: Richest marine reptile fossil bed along Africa's South Atlantic coast is dated at 71.5 mya
    A new study uses carbon isotope dating to determine the first precise age for this bed, and ties the western coast of Africa to 30 million years of global geologic records
  • 2014/05/12: SFU: Fossil palm beetles 'hindcast' 50-million-year-old winters
  • 2014/05/12: SciNow: What Caused a 1300-Year Deep Freeze?
  • 2014/05/12: NatureN: Prehistoric impact idea smacked down
    Analysis suggests dates of reported cosmic collision cannot explain North American extinctions.

  In the attribution debate:

  • 2014/05/16: UCSUSA:B: Are the California Wildfires a Sign of Climate Change?

  What's the State of the Oceans?

  • 2014/05/17: EneNews: 'Mystery disease' on Pacific coast of Alaska...
  • 2014/05/14: Eureka: Turtle migration directly influenced by ocean drift experiences as hatchlings
  • 2014/05/13: BBC: Turtle migration driven by hatchling drift experience
    Why do turtles migrate to the places they do? What is it that tells them where to swim as adults? New research is providing some insight, suggesting the animals' experiences as little hatchlings adrift in ocean currents have a huge influence.
  • 2014/05/13: CBC: Orca 'Granny,' 103, comes home for Mother's Day
    Killer whale matriarch, also known as J2, is estimated to have be born around 1911
  • 2014/05/13: BBC: Deep-sea 'graveyard' reveals fate of dead ocean giants
  • 2014/05/12: EneNews: 'Bizarre creature' turned 50 miles of California coast into graveyard in summer 2011 -- Gov't Biologist: Die-off like this never seen here -- "Abalone massacre... carcasses of urchins, starfish, other mollusks"...

  As for Ocean Currents:

  • 2014/05/13: NatureN: Atlantic current strength declines
    But more data are needed to indicate whether the slowing is a result of human-induced climate change.

  And on the extinction watch:

  • 2014/05/16: Grist: Climate change is threatening the tiny, adorable musky rat-kangaroo
  • 2014/05/16: DD: Mountain Bull, legendary Kenyan elephant, found slaughtered by poachers
    "He was killed while being tracked night and day with modern technology and within the confines of a fenced national park and World Heritage site"
  • 2014/05/15: UCSUSA:B: Of Manatees and Mandates: Celebrating Endangered Species Day
  • 2014/05/16: SciAm:EC: Climate Change Could Wipe Out the World's Smallest Kangaroo [Video]
  • 2014/05/13: UN: UN crime chief urges global action to disrupt 'ruthless' illegal wildlife trade
  • 2014/05/13: BBC: Endangered eels die in power station trap at Ballyshannon
    Hundreds of thousands of critically endangered eels have died in a trap that was supposed to help their migration past a dam into Lough Erne. Traps operated by the Republic of Ireland's electricity generating company ESB are supposed to assist the eels' migration around the hydroelectric power station in Ballyshannon, County Donegal. ESB said an "unfortunate incident" took place over the Easter weekend that resulted in 112kg of juvenile eels, called elvers, being killed.
  • 2014/05/12: UN: As crime commission opens, UN official urges vigorous response to wildlife crime
  • 2014/05/12: SciAm:EC: 14 New Species of Endangered "Dancing" Frogs Discovered in India [Video]

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

  • 2014/05/17: CNN: What will happen if the bees disappear?
    Marla Spivak: Honeybees, wild bees and bumblebees dying at frightening rates - Bees pollinate majority of our crops, she says; fewer bees will cause food supply to shrink - Spivak: Use of herbicides, pesticides are killing off flowering plants, poisoning bees - Spivak: Try not to use herbicides, insecticides; put out flowering plants
  • 2014/05/16: RT: US honeybee population suffers 'unsustainable' death rate over the winter
    Nearly one quarter of the US honeybee population died over the winter, according to an annual survey. Beekeepers report the losses remain higher than they consider sustainable, and the death rate could soon affect the country's food supply.
  • 2014/05/16: SciAm:NBS: Bumblebees Are More Flexible Than We Knew
  • 2014/05/16: PeakEnergy: Study strengthens link between neonicotinoids and collapse of honey bee colonies
  • 2014/05/15: CSM: One in four honeybee colonies died off this winter, and that's an improvement
  • 2014/05/15: NatureNB: US bee losses drop but not far enough
  • 2014/05/12: TreeHugger: No. 1 pesticide [neonicotinoids] killing honeybees
  • 2014/05/11: GLaden: What is killing the bees? It's the neonicotinoids, for sure.
  • 2014/05/10: CDreams: The Collapse of the Bees... And How To Save Them
  • 2014/05/09: UPI: Pesticides to blame for honeybee colony collapse disorder, not mites

  How are the Insect Orders doing?

  • 2014/05/16: Resilience: Bring Back the Monarchs!

  Assertions of Overshoot:

  • 2014/05/18: CCurrents: Earth In Overshoot; Human Growth Is Killing Her

  More GW impacts are being seen:

  • 2014/05/16: Grist: Climate change has found another way to screw the poor
  • 2014/05/16: TRP: Things Totally Not Caused by Climate Change
  • 2014/05/15: RealEconomics: The climate has already changed
  • 2014/05/15: BBerg: Climate Change to Hit Sovereign Creditworthiness: S&P

  And then there are the world's forests:

  • 2014/05/16: DD: Brazil laundering illegal timber on a massive and growing scale - 'Logging in the Brazilian Amazon is absolutely out of control'
  • 2014/05/11: TruthDig: Brazil Beef Tax Could Spare Forests

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

  • 2014/05/15: EUO: EU illegal border entry detections up 48% [to 107,000] in 2013
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Climate change refugee claim: Deportation fears for Kiribati man after losing appeal
    A man from Kiribati, whose home in South Tarawa is threatened by rising sea levels, has lost what is possibly his final bid to live in New Zealand as a refugee. Ioane Teitiota, 37, lost his Court of Appeal case against a tribunal decision refusing him refugee status in New Zealand.
  • 2014/05/13: UN: UN deeply concerned at rising deaths from boat accidents in the Mediterranean
  • 2014/05/12: BBC: Migrants drown as Libya boat to Italy sinks
    At least 17 people died when a boat carrying hundreds of migrants sank in waters between Libya and southern Italy, navy officials say. Some 200 others were rescued from the boat, which went down south of the Italian island of Lampedusa. This comes a day after it emerged that 36 migrants drowned last week when their boat sank off the Libyan coast.
  • 2014/05/12: EUO: Migrant boat carrying hundreds sinks
  • 2014/05/12: Guardian(UK): New Zealand refuses climate change refugees -- mass action is now needed
    New Zealand's court of appeal has refused refugee status to a family from Kiribati, a Pacific island which is quickly sinking beneath the sea

  On the tornado front:

  • 2014/05/16: TP:JR: Firenado Alert: All Of California Under Severe Drought As Climate Change Dries Out Texas

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

  • 2014/05/17: IOTD: Wildfires in California [on May 14]
  • 2014/05/17: MODIS: Fires in southcentral Russia [on May 6]
  • 2014/05/18: MODIS: Fires and smoke in Baja California [on April 30]
  • 2014/05/17: DD: Photo gallery: Ash is the new 'May Gray' in Southern California
  • 2014/05/16: CBC: Attawapiskat flooding forces hundreds from homes
  • 2014/05/16: NatGeo: Drought, Fire, and the New Normal in the American West
  • 2014/05/16: WSWS: High temperatures and drought cause multiple wildfires in Southern California
  • 2014/05/16: Wunderground: Record May Heat and Wildfires Continue in California; Extreme Flooding in Serbia
  • 2014/05/16: NASA: Skunk Fire in Arizona
  • 2014/05/16: NASA: Fires Continue in San Diego County, California
  • 2014/05/16: Grist: Meet the firefighters on the front lines of wildfire-ravaged America
  • 2014/05/16: CNN: 'Unprecedented' wildfires, fierce winds lead to 'firenadoes' in California
    Five fires now burn; 31 square miles have been scorched in San Diego County - 157,000 notices of evacuation have been issued countywide - 400-acre Poinsettia Fire in Carlsbad is 100% contained - Isaiah Silva, 19, and a juvenile, 17, both of Escondido, are arrested in fire probe
  • 2014/05/16: CBC: California Wildfires: San Diego County issues 13,000 new evacuation notices
  • 2014/05/15: CSM: San Marcos fire: One of nine California wildfires roars to life
  • 2014/05/15: Wunderground: Record May Heat, Drought, and Fires Scorch California
  • 2014/05/15: NASA: Fires in San Diego County Blazing
  • 2014/05/15: TP:JR: More Than 20,000 Evacuated As California Spring Turns To Summer Of Fire
  • 2014/05/15: CNN: Wildfires burn almost 10,000 acres in California's San Diego County
  • 2014/05/15: Grist: Insane wildfires arrive months early in SoCal, threaten nuke plant
  • 2014/05/14: al Jazeera: Thousands flee wildfires in south California
    About 15,000 homes and businesses told to evacuate as wind-lashed wildfire roars through southern California community.
  • 2014/05/14: RT: State of emergency declared in San Diego County as wildfires rage (photos)
  • 2014/05/14: IndiaTimes: Wildfire forces 20,000 evacuations near San Diego in US
  • 2014/05/14: DD: Wildfires strike early, hard in Southern California - 'This is May. This is unbelievable.'
  • 2014/05/13: CSM: California heat wave: Parched conditions feed a wildfire near San Diego
  • 2014/05/13: CBC: California wildfire prompts evacuation of 20,000 homes -- California in the midst of worst drought in decades
  • 2014/05/13: NASA: Signal Fire in New Mexico
  • 2014/05/13: BBerg: California Heat Pushes Power to Six-Year Seasonal High
    Spot electricity in California, the second-leading power-consuming state, jumped to the highest seasonal level in six years as surging temperatures boost air-conditioning demand. The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory yesterday for parts of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas through tomorrow. Temperatures in the interior valleys of the state should rise to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) with San Francisco reaching the mid-90s tomorrow, the weather service said in forecasts yesterday. The May 13 record high for San Francisco is 87, weather service data show.
  • 2014/05/12: TP:JR: Texas Wildfire Destroys 100 Homes, Forces Hundreds Of Evacuations

  Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:

  • 2014/05/16: TP:JR: Coral Reefs Protect Shorelines By Reducing Wave Energy By 97 Percent, Study Finds
  • 2014/05/14: Xinhuanet: Coral reefs provide protection from storms, rising seas: study
  • 2014/05/13: USGS: Coral Reefs are Critical for Risk Reduction & Adaptation
    New study shows that coral reefs provide risk reduction benefits to hundreds of millions of coastal inhabitants around the world

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

  • 2014/05/14: Yale360: Examining How Marine Life Might Adapt to Acidified Oceans
    In an interview with Yale Environment 360, marine biologist Gretchen Hofmann discusses how well mollusks and other shell-building organisms might evolve to live in increasingly corrosive ocean conditions caused by soaring CO2 emissions.

  Sea levels are rising:

  • 2014/05/14: RTCC: New Antarctic studies suggest more rapid sea level rise this century
  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: New Studies Suggest Many Coastal Cities Eventually To Be Abandoned With Antarctic Ice Collapse
  • 2014/05/13: DeSmogBlog: Scientists Fear Massive Sea Level Rise from "Unstoppable" Melt of West Antarctica Ice Sheet
  • 2014/05/12: BBerg: Alabama Avoids Preparing for Rising Seas Menacing Mobile

  These extreme rainfall events are becoming all too frequent:

  • 2014/05/16: CBC: Balkans floods kill 4 amid record rainfall -- Torrential rain raises water levels to highest in at least 120 years
    [...]
    "In three days, as much rain fell as normally falls in three months," said Goran Mihajlovic, of Serbia's Meteorological Institute. "Statistically, such rainfall happens once in 100 years," he added.

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

  • 2014/05/18: ABC(Au): Serbia and Bosnia floods: More than 30 dead, thousands evacuated after days of record rainfall
  • 2014/05/18: BBC: Balkan floods: Fears of new surge on Serbia's River Sava
  • 2014/05/18: BBC: In pictures: Balkans floods
  • 2014/05/18: CBC: Bosnia floods create new land-mine risk in Balkans
    Raging water and landslides kill 25, forces tens of thousands to flee
  • 2014/05/18: al Jazeera: European floods -- Images from the latest spell of floods to hit central and eastern Europe
  • 2014/05/17: BBC: Bosnia and Serbia floods: Death toll rises
  • 2014/05/17: CBC: Balkans flooding kills 25, forces tens of thousands to flee
  • 2014/05/17: CBC: Attawapiskat evacuation begins due to flood threat
  • 2014/05/17: CNN: Thousands evacuated due to severe flooding in Balkans
    Worst flooding the region has seen in at least 120 years - At least 20 people are dead in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina - More than 16,000 people have been evacuated in Serbia - More flooding is expected Sunday
  • 2014/05/17: PSinclair: The Drought in Maps
  • 2014/05/17: DD: Thousands flee, 20 die in worst floods ever recorded in Balkans - Bosnia and Serbia get three months' worth of rain in three days
  • 2014/05/16: QuarkSoup: Texas Panhandle: Driest 5 Years on Record
  • 2014/05/15: CCentral: 100 Percent of California Now in Highest Stages of Drought
  • 2014/05/15: al Jazeera: Flooding grips southeast Europe -- Torrential rain pours across the Balkan states
  • 2014/05/15: IOTD: Flooding on the Zambezi River [Feb.21 vs. May 13]
  • 2014/05/13: IOTD: Drought Recorded Across Half of the U.S.
  • 2014/05/12: al Jazeera: Floods disrupt travel across China
    Rainstorms batter China, causing train cancellations and flight delays, and forcing thousands from their homes
  • 2014/05/12: CCP: Justin Gillis, NYT: Looks like rain again. And again.
  • 2014/05/12: al Jazeera: [pix] Saudi soaking -- Images from a very wet Saudi Arabia where heavy rain has caused some flooding
  • 2014/05/11: CBC: Kashechewan First Nation evacuation escalates
    More people forced from their homes as Albany River flooding continues in Kashechewan

  First, stop putting GHGs into the atmosphere,
  Second, begin to reduce current levels of GHGs,
  Third, save as many species as possible,
  Fourth, begin to reduce the human population,
  And elsewhere on the mitigation front:

  • 2014/05/15: NakedCapitalism: J.D. Alt: Climate Mitigation and Confusion About "Cost": Who Benefits?
  • 2014/05/12: TP:JR: Stopping Climate Change 'Almost Impossible' If China Can't Quit Coal, Report Says

  After Planned Obsolescence comes Designed Endurance...

  • 2014/05/16: TheConversation: 'Repair cafés' are about fixing things - including the economy

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

  • 2014/05/16: PeakEnergy: China 'considering' building high-speed rail line from Beijing to the United States
  • 2014/05/13: PeakEnergy: Beyond Zero Emissions finds Australian high-speed rail service sensible and feasible

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

  • 2014/05/16: TheCanadian: Small is the new Big in sustainable urban revolution [Suzuki]
  • 2014/05/15: Grist: College students design home with $2 energy bills
  • 2014/05/14: Grist: Enviros bash industry-backed "green" building program - LEED it ain't
  • 2014/05/14: TreeHugger: Greenwash Action fights back against the attacks on LEED green building certification

  As for carbon sequestration:

  • 2014/05/14: RNE: The death throes of the Australian coal industry's CCS dream

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

  • 2014/05/13: RSC: [Book Page] _Geoengineering of the Climate System_ edited by Roy Harrison & Ron Hester
  • 2014/05/12: CoS: Take mom's advice about high albedo crops
  • 2014/05/09: AGU:B: New study brings weaknesses of Southern Ocean geoengineering to the surface
  • 2014/05/05: PSMag: Can Anyone Stop the Man Who Will Try Just About Anything to Put an End to Climate Change?
  • 2014/04/30: Aka(fi): Researchers look into geoengineering possibilities

  What's new in conservation?

  • 2014/05/15: SciAm: Impossible to Conserve Nature As Is, Thanks to Climate Change
    A U.S. government-backed guide for land managers says global warming requires a fundamental shift in conservation
  • 2014/05/16: DD: Report: Impossible to conserve nature as is, thanks to climate change

  While on the adaptation front:

  • 2014/05/14: TreeHugger: What good are coral reefs? They protect around 200 million people who live in coastal areas!

  Meanwhile in the journals:

  • 2014/05/11: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Lateral hyporheic exchange throughout the Mississippi River network by Brian A. Kiel & M. Bayani Cardenas
  • 2014/05/11: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Reconciliation of halogen-induced ozone loss with the total-column ozone record by T. G. Shepherd et al.
  • 2014/05/11: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) The rise and fall of methanotrophy following a deepwater oil-well blowout by M. Crespo-Medina et al.
  • 2014/05/11: Nature:CC: (ab$) bargaining game analysis of international climate negotiations by Rory Smead et al.
  • 2014/05/11: Nature:CC: (ab$) Greenhouse gas production in low-latitude lake sediments responds strongly to warming by H. Marotta et al.
  • 2014/05/11: Nature:CC: (ab$) Evolution of the Southern Annular Mode during the past millennium by Nerilie J. Abram et al.
  • 2014/05/12: Science: (ab$) Marine Ice Sheet Collapse Potentially Underway for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica by Ian Joughin et al.
  • 2014/05/12: WoL:GRL: (ab$) Widespread, rapid grounding line retreat of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica from 1992 to 2011 by E. Rignot et al.
  • 2014/05/13: PNAS: (ab$) Evolutionary history of redox metal-binding domains across the tree of life by Arye Harel et al.
  • 2014/05/13: PNAS: (abs) Declines in large wildlife increase landscape-level prevalence of rodent-borne disease in Africa by Hillary S. Young et al.
  • 2014/05/13: PNAS: (ab$) Network analysis reveals multiscale controls on streamwater chemistry by Kevin J. McGuire et al.
  • 2014/05/13: PNAS: (ab$) Assessing the effects of anthropogenic aerosols on Pacific storm track using a multiscale global climate model by Yuan Wang et al.
  • 2014/05/13: PNAS: (ab$) Undocumented water column sink for cadmium in open ocean oxygen-deficient zones by David J. Janssen et al.
  • 2014/05/13: PNAS: (abs) Projected changes in African easterly wave intensity and track in response to greenhouse forcing by Christopher Bryan Skinner & Noah S. Diffenbaugh
  • 2014/05/13: PNAS: (ab$) Radiometric 81Kr dating identifies 120,000-year-old ice at Taylor Glacier, Antarctica by Christo Buizert et al.
  • 2014/05/13: PNAS: (letter$) Radiokrypton dating finally takes off by Werner Aeschbach-Hertig
  • 2014/05/13: PNAS: (letter$) Sea star wasting by Mark Schrope
  • 2014/05/07: WoL:EF: Climate scientists need to set the record straight: There is a scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is happening by Edward Maibach et al.
  • 2014/05/06: WoL:Eos: (ab$) Severe Weather in United States Under a Changing Climate by Donald J. Wuebbles et al.
  • 2014/05/13: ACP: Global and regional emissions estimates for N2O by E. Saikawa et al.
  • 2014/05/13: ACP: Global risk from the atmospheric dispersion of radionuclides by nuclear power plant accidents in the coming decades by T. Christoudias et al.
  • 2014/05/12: ACP: Isoprene emissions over Asia 1979-2012: impact of climate and land-use changes by T. Stavrakou et al.
  • 2014/05/12: ACP: Growth of climate change commitments from HFC banks and emissions by G. J. M. Velders et al.
  • 2014/05/15: ACPD: Copernicus atmospheric service for stratospheric ozone: validation and intercomparison of four near real-time analyses, 2009-2012 by K. Lefever et al.
  • 2014/05/14: ACPD: Model simulated trend of surface carbon monoxide for the 2001-2010 decade by J. Yoon & A. Pozzer
  • 2014/05/14: ACPD: Potential climate forcing of land use and land cover change by D. S. Ward et al.
  • 2014/05/14: Nature: (ab$) Uplift and seismicity driven by groundwater depletion in central California by Colin B. Amos et al.
  • 2014/05/14: Nature: (ab$) The poleward migration of the location of tropical cyclone maximum intensity by James P. Kossin et al.
  • 2014/05/12: GMDD: Grassland production under global change scenarios for New Zealand pastoral agriculture by E. D. Keller et al.
  • 2014/05/12: HESS: Horizontal soil water potential heterogeneity: simplifying approaches for crop water dynamics models by V. Couvreur et al.
  • 2014/05/13: HESSD: Design droughts as planning tool for ecosystem establishment in post-mining landscapes by D. Halwatura et al.
  • 2014/05/13: HESSD: Building a field- and model-based climatology of local water and energy cycles in the cultivated Sahel - annual budgets and seasonality by C. Velluet et al.
  • 2014/05/12: HESSD: Determining regional limits and sectoral constraints for water use under climate change by T. K. Lissner et al.
  • 2014/05/13: TC: Transition of flow regime along a marine-terminating outlet glacier in East Antarctica by D. Callens et al.
  • 2014/05/12: TC: Parameterization of atmosphere-surface exchange of CO2 over sea ice by L. L. Sørensen et al.
  • 2014/05/13: TCD: Healing of snow surface-to-surface contacts by isothermal sintering by E. A. Podolskiy et al.
  • 2014/05/12: TCD: Orientation dependent glacial changes at the Tibetan Plateau derived from 2003-2009 ICESat laser altimetry by V. H. Phan et al.
  • 2014/05/12: TCD: Surface depressions (Lacunas) on Bering Glacier, Alaska: a product of downwasting through differential ablation by P. J. Fleisher
  • 2014/05/16: BG: Mangroves in peril: unprecedented degradation rates of peri-urban mangroves in Kenya by J. O. Bosire et al.
  • 2014/05/16: BG: What is the importance of climate model bias when projecting the impacts of climate change on land surface processes? by M. Liu et al.
  • 2014/05/16: BG: Impacts of droughts on carbon sequestration by China's terrestrial ecosystems from 2000 to 2011 by Y. Liu et al.
  • 2014/05/13: BG: Cold-water coral growth under extreme environmental conditions, the Cape Lookout area, NW Atlantic by F. Mienis et al.
  • 2014/05/16: BGD: Progressive eutrophication behind the world-largest super floating macroalgal blooms in the Yellow Sea by Q. Xing et al.
  • 2014/05/12: BGD: Australian net (1950s-1990) soil organic carbon erosion: implications for CO2 emission and land-atmosphere modelling by A. Chappell et al.
  • 2014/05/12: BGD: Biogeophysical feedbacks enhance Arctic terrestrial carbon sink in regional Earth system dynamics by W. Zhang et al.
  • 2014/05/16: CP: Orbitally tuned timescale and astronomical forcing in the middle Eocene to early Oligocene by T. Westerhold et al.
  • 2014/05/14: CP: Orbital- and millennial-scale environmental changes between 64 and 20 ka BP recorded in Black Sea sediments by L. S. Shumilovskikh et al.
  • 2014/05/15: CPD: The evolution of sub-monsoon systems in the Afro-Asian monsoon region during the Holocene - comparison of different transient climate model simulations by A. Dallmeyer et al.
  • 2014/05/15: CPD: The Global Monsoon across Time Scales: is there coherent variability of regional monsoons? by P. X. Wang et al.
  • 2014/05/13: CPD: Investigating uncertainties in global gridded datasets of climate extremes by R. J. H. Dunn et al.
  • 2014/05/12: CPD: Pliocene diatom and sponge spicule oxygen isotope ratios from the Bering Sea: isotopic offsets and future directions by A. M. Snelling et al.
  • 2014/05/12: CPD: North African vegetation-precipitation feedback in early and mid-Holocene climate simulations with CCSM3-DGVM by R. Rachmayani et al.
  • 2014/05/12: CPD: Radiative forcings for 28 potential Archean greenhouse gases by B. Byrne & C. Goldblatt
  • 2014/05/16: ACP: Examining the stratospheric response to the solar cycle in a coupled WACCM simulation with an internally generated QBO by A. C. Kren et al.
  • 2014/05/14: HESS: Endogenous change: on cooperation and water availability in two ancient societies by S. Pande & M. Ertsen
  • 2014/05/16: HESSD: Climate change and non-stationary flood risk for the Upper Truckee River Basin by L. E. Condon et al.
  • 2014/05/15: HESSD: Climate change and wetland loss impacts on a Western river's water quality by R. M. Records et al.
  • 2014/05/14: HESSD: Explaining and forecasting interannual variability in the flow of the Nile River by M. S. Siam & E. A. B. Eltahir
  • 2014/05/14: OS: Interannual correlations between sea surface temperature and concentration of chlorophyll pigment off Punta Eugenia, Baja California, during different remote forcing conditions by H. Herrera-Cervantes et al.
  • 2014/05/16: TC: Weekly gridded Aquarius L-band radiometer/scatterometer observations and salinity retrievals over the polar regions - Part 2: Initial product analysis by L. Brucker et al.
  • 2014/05/16: TC: Weekly gridded Aquarius L-band radiometer/scatterometer observations and salinity retrievals over the polar regions - Part 1: Product description by L. Brucker et al.
  • 2014/05/16: TC: The microwave emissivity variability of snow covered first-year sea ice from late winter to early summer: a model study by S. Willmes et al.
  • 2014/05/15: TC: Bathymetric and oceanic controls on Abbot Ice Shelf thickness and stability by J. R. Cochran et al.
  • 2014/05/14: TCD: The length of the glaciers in the world - a straightforward method for the automated calculation of glacier center lines by H. Machguth & M. Huss
  • 2014/05/07: Nature:Comm: (abs) Arctic tree rings as recorders of variations in light availability by A. R. Stine & P. Huybers
  • 2014/05/15: Nature:Comm: (ab$) Impacts of El Niño Southern Oscillation on the global yields of major crops by Toshichika Iizumi et al.
  • 2014/05/09: PhytoKeys: Rinorea niccolifera (Violaceae), a new, nickel-hyperaccumulating species from Luzon Island, Philippines by Edwino S. Fernando et al.
  • 2014/05/07: PLoS One: Fish Food in the Deep Sea: Revisiting the Role of Large Food-Falls by Nicholas D. Higgs et al.

  And other significant documents:

  • 2014/05/13: CNA: [link to 5.1 meg pdf] National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change
  • 2014/05/12: GreenPeace: [links to several pdfs] Energy Revolution 2014 - A Sustainable USA Energy Outlook

  As for miscellaneous science:

  • 2014/05/16: ScienceInsider: Requiem for an ROV [Nereus]
  • 2014/05/16: NatureN: Lightning linked to solar wind
    Correlation suggests answer to longstanding question about what triggers bolts.
  • 2014/05/15: BBC: Solar wind 'triggers lightning on Earth'
  • 2014/05/15: Eureka: Marine scientists use JeDI [Jellyfish Database Initiative] to create world's first global jellyfish database
  • 2014/05/14: UCSB: The State of Rain
    UCSB's Climate Hazards Group developed a satellite-based rainfall monitoring dataset to support the early detection of drought globally
  • 2014/05/14: ABC(Au): Irukandji 'forecast' may soon warn Australian swimmers about presence of deadly stingers
  • 2014/05/14: SciShot: Wind Patterns Forecast [Irukandji] Jellyfish Attacks
  • 2014/05/13: BBC: Forecast possible for Irukandji box jellyfish blooms
    The sudden arrival of huge blooms of box jellyfish can now be predicted, a study suggests.
  • 2014/05/12: RT: New species of metal-munching plant found in Philippines
  • 2014/05/12: NatureNB: Cutting-edge research submersible [Nereus] lost at sea
  • 2014/05/12: ScienceInsider: Lectures Aren't Just Boring, They're Ineffective, Too, Study Finds
  • 2014/03/: LabTimes: Bully for You -- What's behind paper retractions?

  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

  • 2014/05/12: Eureka: In the age of open science, repurposing and reproducing research pose their own challenges

  Regarding Hansen:

  • 2014/05/17: SimpleC: The witness who collided with government on climate
  • 2014/05/11: CCP: James Hansen et al., ERL: Climate forcing growth rates: doubling down on our Faustian bargain

  Regarding Friedman:

  • 2014/05/16: SciAm:GB: The Man Who Saved Museums

  Meanwhile at the UN:

  • 2014/05/12: UN: Indigenous Forum opens with UN officials highlighting sustainable development agenda

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

  • 2014/05/11: PaiD: The 'Robin-Hood Tax' Gains Traction

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

  • 2014/05/18: BBC: Iran nuclear talks: Deal still possible, says Tehran
    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has insisted that reaching a final nuclear deal with world powers is still within reach.
  • 2014/05/18: ABC(Au): Iran nuclear talks: Tehran's foreign minister says agreement still 'possible' on long-stalled dispute
  • 2014/05/17: al Jazeera: Demonising nuclear Iran -- How did a false Iran nuclear narrative come to dominate global politics?
  • 2014/05/17: Xinhuanet: "No tangible progress" made in Iranian nuclear talks: Iranian deputy FM
  • 2014/05/16: Asia Times: US demand may derail nuclear talks
    As diplomats began drafting a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program and Western sanctions in Vienna, US officials were poised to demand a drastic cut in Iran's enrichment capabilities that is widely expected to deadlock the negotiations. Iran is almost certain to reject the basic concept that it should reduce the number of its centrifuges to a fraction of its present total, and the resulting collapse of the talks could lead to a much higher level of tensions between the United States and Iran.
  • 2014/05/16: AntiWar: US 'Political' Breakout Demand Could Derail Iran Nuclear Talks
  • 2014/05/16: IndiaTimes: Nuclear discussions moving forward but 'difficult': Iran
  • 2014/05/16: Xinhuanet: IAEA refuses to comment on whether Iran meets deadline
    [...]
    The spokesperson of IAEA told Xinhua on Thursday that the agency would provide its member states information of Iran's implementation of the seven steps in a confidential report next week.
  • 2014/05/16: AntiWar: US Faults Iran, Warns Time Is Short After Latest Talks
  • 2014/05/16: BBerg: Iran Nuclear Talks Stumble in Latest Round on Enrichment
  • 2014/05/14: WSWS: Iran slashes price subsidies, auctions off public assets to European capital
    In close collaboration with the IMF, Iran's government is eliminating price subsidies and accelerating the sell-off of public assets. Iran's government has imposed dramatic increases in fuel, electricity and water prices in recent weeks and announced the acceleration of its privatization program. This pro-investor economic restructuring is being implemented in close consultation with the IMF and is part of Tehran's efforts to woo European and ultimately US big business.
  • 2014/05/14: BBC: US and Iranian officials have sounded a note of caution as the talks on Iran's nuclear programme resume in Vienna
  • 2014/05/13: Asia Times: Iran nuclear deal hits hardest phase
  • 2014/05/12: AntiWar: Vienna Talks With Iran Seek 'Grand Compromise' -- State Dept: Comfortable With Talks on Deal
  • 2014/05/12: Xinhuanet: Rouhani says Iran's nuclear program "transparent"
  • 2014/05/11: BBerg: Iran Nuclear Deal Takes Shape With Powers Poised to Expand Ties
    Diplomats will start drafting a final accord this week to resolve a decade-long standoff with Iran that would rescind oil and banking sanctions in return for limits on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. The five days of scheduled talks in Vienna will be the longest round of haggling since November, when diplomats agreed to a temporary accord. U.S., Russian and Iranian officials have said drafting should begin this week to meet a July 20 target.

  South [& East] China Sea tension persists, as the empire leans on China:

  • 2014/05/18: CBC: Vietnam clamps down on anti-China protests -- More than 3,000 Chinese evacuated from Vietnam after violence
  • 2014/05/18: al Jazeera: China evacuates 3,000 nationals from Vietnam
    Evacuations follow deadly rioting in industrial parks in response to China's deployment of oil rig in contested waters.
  • 2014/05/17: BBC: China evacuates workers after Vietnam deadly riots
    The Chinese government has evacuated more than 3,000 of its nationals from Vietnam following a wave of anti-Chinese riots, Chinese media report.
  • 2014/05/16: WSWS: Anti-Chinese protests erupt in Vietnam's industrial zones
  • 2014/05/16: al Jazeera: Chinese team in Vietnam after deadly clashes
    An oil rig in the South China Sea has inflamed tensions between the two countries, with both claiming water is theirs.
  • 2014/05/16: al Jazeera: Japan weighs abandoning pacifism
    PM Shinzo Abe seeks review of ban on military combat abroad but pledges that Japan will stay on peaceful path.
  • 2014/05/16: VietnamNews: China, Viet Nam FMs hold phone talks on E Sea issue
  • 2014/05/15: VietnamNews: Viet Nam has law on its side on East Sea issue
  • 2014/05/16: Xinhuanet: Commentary: Vietnam is solely responsible for latest maritime standoff with China
  • 2014/05/16: Xinhuanet: News Analysis: Abe moves forward with bolstering Japan's military's role, public's Constitutional rights stripped
  • 2014/05/16: IndiaTimes: Biden cautions China in its dispute with Vietnam
  • 2014/05/16: RT: Amid riots, China blames Vietnam over disputed territory rift
  • 2014/05/16: CBC: Vietnam PM Nguyen Tan Dung urges citizens to defend sovereignty against China
    Apple supplier Foxconn suspends production in Vietnam amid the unrest
  • 2014/05/15: BBC: China-Vietnam tensions: Beijing vows to continue drilling
    China has said its oil rig will continue drilling in contested waters in the South China Sea, despite deadly anti-Beijing riots in Vietnam.
  • 2014/05/15: CBC: Disputed South China Sea reef: Philippines objects to reclamation work
    'We want to show people that (China's) actions are part of its aggressive behaviour,' spokesman says The Philippine government on Thursday released military surveillance photos of Chinese land reclamation on a reef claimed by Manila in the South China Sea that it said showed Beijing violated a regional agreement not to escalate territorial disputes. Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Charles Jose said the pictures show Chinese aggressiveness in asserting its claims over the entire South China Sea.
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Chinese worker killed, dozens injured in Vietnam riot
  • 2014/05/15: al Jazeera: Vietnam anger rises over South China Sea
    China's oil rig deployment in disputed territory is stoking nationalistic fervour and deadly violence in Vietnam.
  • 2014/05/15: al Jazeera: Dozens killed in Vietnam anti-China protests
    At least 21 killed in latest incident of rioting over the Chinese construction of an oil rig in disputed waters.
  • 2014/05/15: Asia Times: Anti-China mobs torch factories in Vietnam
  • 2014/05/15: Asia Times: Bell tolls for US pivot in South China Sea
  • 2014/05/15: Asia Times: Sea strife follows Obama in Asia
  • 2014/05/15: Xinhuanet: Commentary: Vietnam must ensure safety of Chinese citizens in the country
  • 2014/05/15: Xinhuanet: Ten Chinese unaccounted for after Vietnam's mob attacks
  • 2014/05/15: IndiaTimes: Factories set on fire in Vietnam as anti-China sentiment spread
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Chinese businesses attacked in Vietnam
  • 2014/05/15: CNN: Pacifism threatened? Japan's Abe due to announce plan to loosen military limits
  • 2014/05/14: BBerg: China Plays Cat and Mouse With Vietnam Coast Guard on Rig
    From his Vietnamese Coast Guard boat at night, Lieutenant Phan Chi Cuong can see the yellow lights of an oil rig 10 nautical miles away. Owned by a Chinese company, it sits in waters near islands claimed by both nations in the South China Sea. Dozens of ships clutter the area, playing a daily game of cat and mouse in rough seas as China shields the rig with its vessels. At stake is the resource-rich waters around the contested Paracel Islands, in a dispute that has soured ties between the two Communist nations as China steps up its territorial assertions in the region.
  • 2014/05/14: al Jazeera: China 'building airstrip' on disputed reef
    Philippines accuses China of reclaiming land to build an airstrip on the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
  • 2014/05/14: Xinhuanet: Commentary: Manila to bear consequences for deliberate provocation
  • 2014/05/14: BBC: Factories burnt in Vietnam anti-China protest
    Several factories have been set on fire amid anti-China protests at an industrial park in southern Vietnam, amid tensions over the South China Sea.
  • 2014/05/14: BBerg: Anti-China Riot at Taiwan Steel Mill in Vietnam Kills 1
  • 2014/05/14: al Jazeera: The Philippines' strategic dilemma: Between an eagle and a dragon
  • 2014/05/13: Resilience: Asian Century sails into troubled waters in the South China Sea
  • 2014/05/13: PeakEnergy: Why Did China Set Up an Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters?
  • 2014/05/13: IndiaTimes: Keep out of feud with Vietnam, China tells India
  • 2014/05/13: IndiaTimes: US chides China over maritime dispute with Vietnam
  • 2014/05/13: IndiaTimes: Hundreds of Chinese families seek wartime compensation from Japan
  • 2014/05/13: WSWS: Vietnam and Philippines escalate maritime disputes with China
  • 2014/05/13: WSWS: India signals support for Vietnam in South China Sea dispute
  • 2014/05/12: Xinhuanet: Philippine court charges 9 of 11 nabbed Chinese fishermen
  • 2014/05/11: BBerg: Southeast Asia Ministers Urge Self-Restraint on Sea Spat
    Southeast Asian nations called for self-restraint on territorial disputes in the South China Sea as tensions escalate over China's pursuit of its claims to large swaths of the resource-rich region. Leaders called on all parties to "refrain from taking actions that would further escalate tension," in a statement issued at the end of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting yesterday in Naypyidaw in Myanmar. They called for progress on a code of conduct that would seek to preserve freedom of navigation in the area, through which some of the world's busiest shipping lanes run. Disputes are mounting as Asian neighbors push back against Chinese moves to assert control over the maritime areas. Its placement of an oil rig near the disputed Paracel Islands led last week to clashes between Vietnamese and Chinese boats, while the Philippines detained 11 Chinese fisherman in a contested area. Vietnamese protested in several cities yesterday against China's actions.
  • 2014/05/11: BBC: Vietnam protesters attack China over sea dispute
    Hundreds of people across Vietnam have protested against China's role in a sea dispute - the largest rallies of their kind recently in the communist country.

  Tensions continue as the empire leans on Syria, Ukraine, Russia...:

  • 2014/05/15: BBC: Ukraine must pay cash for gas, says Russia's Putin
    Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country will demand payment in advance for gas supplies to Ukraine starting from 1 June. In an open letter to European leaders, Mr Putin said Ukraine now owed Russia $3.5bn (2.55bn euros; £2.1bn) for gas already delivered. He said Russia remained open to consultations, but the EU had failed to come up with specific solutions.
  • 2014/05/14: BBerg: Ukraine Slides Deeper Toward War as Russia Warns on Vote
    Russia's foreign minister said Ukraine is sliding into a civil war that could make it impossible to hold legitimate elections, as Ukrainian leaders and their international allies blamed Russia for the violence.
  • 2014/05/14: EUO: Ukraine to use EU and IMF money to pay for Russian gas
  • 2014/05/14: NatureN: Russia's retaliation could doom Space Station
    Cooperation with the United States will end in 2020 as fallout of Ukraine crisis reaches space.
  • 2014/05/13: BBerg: Russian Slowdown to Shield Europe From Ukraine Gas Cuts
    European natural gas traders are betting Russia's economy can't afford to lose more than $100 billion if the crisis in Ukraine escalates, reducing the odds of a long-lasting supply cut to the former Soviet nation.
  • 2014/05/13: EmpireBurlesque: Potomac Fever: Sleepwalking to the Brink in Ukraine
  • 2014/05/13: Asia Times: The Roving Eye - Ukraine: The waiting game
    Everything one needs to know about mediocre political elites allegedly representing the "values" of Western civilization has been laid bare by their reaction to the referendums in Donetsk and Lugansk. The referendums may have been a last-minute affair; organized in a rush; in the middle of a de facto civil war; and on top of it at gunpoint - supplied by the Kiev NATO neo-liberal neo-fascist junta, which even managed to kill some voters in Mariupol. An imperfect process? Yes. But absolutely perfect in terms of graphically depicting a mass movement in favor of self-rule and political independence from Kiev. This was direct democracy in action; no wonder the US State Department hated it with a vengeance.
  • 2014/05/12: BBC: Russia's state energy giant Gazprom has said it may halt natural gas shipments to Ukraine on 3 June unless the country pays in advance for supplies
  • 2014/05/12: BBerg: Gazprom Threatens to Halt Gas Shipments to Ukraine on June 3
    Russia threatened to stop supplying gas to Ukraine on June 3 unless the country starts paying for the fuel in advance. Tomorrow, OAO Gazprom will send Ukraine a bill for June, Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller said today at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. If the bill isn't paid by June 2 the neighboring country won't receive any Russian gas from 10 a.m. the next morning, Miller said.
  • 2014/05/12: CCurrents: "The Russians Are Coming ... Again ... And They're Still Ten Feet Tall!"
  • 2014/05/11: BBC: Ukraine rebels hold referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk
    "Self-rule" referendums have been held in Ukraine's easternmost areas, with pro-Russian separatists claiming nearly 90% voted in favour in Donetsk region.
  • 2014/05/10: Rediff:B: Asia-Pacific, Ukraine unrelated -- so far, at least by M K Bhadrakumar

  These 'free trade' treaties should be called the corporate control treaties:

  • 2014/05/16: EUO: EU and US aim for 2015 trade deal, exclude financial services
  • 2014/05/12: TreeHugger: Is the Trans-Pacific Partnership an environmental disaster waiting to happen?
  • 2014/05/12: Asia Times: The free-trade regime: Oligarchy in action

  Another contestant in the worldwide solar squabbles - Now Australia is wrangling with China:

  • 2014/05/14: RNE: Tindo wins push for probe into dumping of cheap Chinese solar panels

  And in miscellaneous international political jousting:

  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Wife of East Timor's P.M. slams Australia
    East Timor's former First Lady, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, has slammed Australia's behavior, as both countries fight over a 40-billion dollar oil and gas treaty in The Hague.
  • 2014/05/12: RT: Russia: Historic 30-yr gas deal with China set to be signed next week
  • 2014/05/12: Xinhuanet: ASEAN summit summarized as productive: chairman

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

  • 2014/05/15: CCP: U.S. Military Report: Climate Change is a 'Catalyst for Conflict'
  • 2014/05/13: Resilience: Behind the rise of Boko Haram - ecological disaster, oil crisis, spy games [security]
  • 2014/05/13: RTCC: UN climate treaty vital for global security, warns senior NATO official
  • 2014/05/11: TP:JR: How Climate Change Helps Fuel Nigeria's Instability

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

  • 2014/05/16: JLeggett: Did police criminalise first UK fracking protest to discourage later protest?
  • 2014/05/13: Guardian(UK): Glenn Greenwald: from Martin Luther King to Anonymous, the state targets dissenters not just "bad guys"
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Police union voices concerns about Bentley anti-gas protest operation
  • 2014/05/12: WSWS: The criminalization of political opposition in America

  What are the activists up to?

  • 2014/05/16: CPunch: Taking On The World's Largest Coal Company
  • 2014/05/16: CleanTechnica: Chicago Nurses Vs. Koch Petcoke As Exports Climb
  • 2014/05/12: TP:JR: Rallying At Koch-Owned Facility [in southeast Chicago], Nurses Experience Petcoke Pollution Firsthand
  • 2014/05/12: CensoredNews: Video: Black Mesa resident denied access at Peabody coal shareholder meeting

  Resistance takes many forms across Turtle Island:

  • 2014/05/16: CensoredNews: Hihansun wakpa oyate camp for protection from Keystone tarsands pipeline
  • 2014/05/16: CensoredNews: Six facts Indian country media doesn't want you to know
    The collapse of the media in Indian country fuels the destruction locally and globally

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

  • 2014/05/17: CCP: Divestment: A Clash of Ideals and Investments at Swarthmore
  • 2014/05/16: CleanTechnica: Stanford Says No To Investing In Coal
  • 2014/05/15: TreeHugger: New Zealand city [Dunedin] divests from fossil fuels
  • 2014/05/14: RTCC: Divestment campaign spreads to New Zealand
    Dunedin becomes first city in New Zealand to stop investing in fossil fuels
  • 2014/05/12: TreeHugger: Why NPR gets it dead wrong on Stanford coal divestment

  Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:

  • 2014/05/17: Tyee: Let's Talk Dirty about Water
  • 2014/05/16: JFleck: Vollman on the economics of Imperial Valley farming
  • 2014/05/13: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: El Niño and the carnival barker
  • 2014/05/12: JFleck: Mead, Powell to end year at lowest storage since 1968
  • 2014/05/12: SciAm:PI: Senate bill shines light on the energy-water nexus
  • 2014/05/11: JFleck: water in the desert
  • 2014/05/10: DentonRC: Water Woes: Back to the land

  And on the groundwater front:

  • 2014/05/15: TP:JR: Depletion Of California's Groundwater Is Triggering Earthquakes, Study Finds

  Regarding science education:

  • 2014/05/15: TP:JR: Oklahoma House Committee Rejects Science Standards Over Teaching The 'Hyperbole' Of Climate Change

  While in the UK:

  • 2014/05/16: Monbiot: Are We Bothered? The more we consume, the less we care about the living planet
  • 2014/05/15: BBC: UK flooding: EA chief floats homes on stilts idea
  • 2014/05/13: BBC: The UK employment minister [Esther McVey] has said rising food bank use is not the fault of Westminster's welfare reforms
  • 2014/05/13: BBC: Government to slash subsidies for large scale solar farms
    The government has unveiled proposals to limit the subsidies paid to large solar farms from next April. Owners of installations bigger than 5 megawatts (MW) will have to compete with other renewables for financing. The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) says it wants to encourage the development of smaller scale and community energy production. Campaigners have condemned the move, saying it will undermine investor confidence in the renewable sector.
  • 2014/05/13: RTCC: John Ashton: fracking is no sensible solution to climate change
  • 2014/05/13: BBC: Heathrow and Gatwick airports have both unveiled revised expansion plans in an attempt to secure permission to build the UK's next runway
  • 2014/05/12: Resilience: House of Lords shale gas report chooses eloquence over analysis when addressing issues of climate change
  • 2014/05/12: OilChange: Two-Thirds of Britain Could be Fracked

  And in Europe:

  • 2014/05/18: Lenz: Surcharge Rebates and Ecotax Rebates For Industry
  • 2014/05/17: Lenz: What Germany Should Do About the EU Commission Illegal Power Grab
  • 2014/05/16: GEB: German Advisory Council on the Environment Calls for Binding Energy Savings Targets in EU Consultation on Future Energy Efficiency Policy
  • 2014/05/16: EurActiv: Commission proposes full driftnet fishing ban
  • 2014/05/16: EurActiv: Europe's 'Energy Dependence Day' is getting earlier each year
  • 2014/05/15: DerSpiegel: Bad Banks for Nuclear Plants: Utilities Look to German Taxpayers
    Fearing astronomical cost overruns, German utility companies want to shift responsibility for dismantling nuclear power plants to the government. Despite the billions of euros in risks it entails, the proposal could still prove attractive for Berlin.
  • 2014/05/15: GET: The role of energy policy in the upcoming European Elections
  • 2014/05/15: GEB: Amendment of Land Development Plan and Zoning Plan in Datteln Brings E.ON Closer to Resume Construction on Datteln 4 [coal] Power Plant
  • 2014/05/14: GEB: Premier of Saxony Demands Nationwide Uniform Electricity Grid Charges
  • 2014/05/14: GET: A bad bank for nuclear
    Over the weekend, there were reports of talks about the creation of a "bad bank" for German nuclear plants, which are to be shut down successively by the end of 2022. Critics charge that the proposal is yet another attempt to privatize profits and nationalize losses. But Craig Morris has a bit more understanding for the firms' position.
  • 2014/05/13: EnergyPost: East European countries place bombshell under EU climate policy
  • 2014/05/13: RTCC: Poland leads calls for climate policy 'compensation' from EU
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Profitability of Tasmanian wind farms tied to renewable scheme: Clean Energy Council
    A group representing the developers of wind farms is warning that scrapping the Renewable Energy Target (RET) would halt the development of new wind farms in Tasmania. The scheme requires companies to be sourcing 20 per cent of their power from renewable energy generators by 2020. The Federal Government has commissioned a review of the RET and is expecting to have the report in July.
  • 2014/05/12: BBC: Spanish politician Isabel Carrasco shot dead in Leon
    A top politician in northern Spain has been shot dead in public and two women have been arrested. Isabel Carrasco, head of the provincial government in Leon and a member of the governing People's Party (PP), was shot as she crossed a footbridge.
  • 2014/05/12: WSWS: European election debate: Conservative, social democratic leaders praise austerity, sanctions vs. Russia
    On Thursday evening, the so-called European election TV "duel" took place between the lead candidate of the conservative European People's Party (EPP), Jean Claude Juncker, and his opponent, Martin Schulz, of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The "duel" is part of desperate attempts by politicians and the media to lend the European Union (EU) a democratic façade, whereas the population increasingly rejects it. Polls predict a low turnout and record wins by parties campaigning against the EU.

  Meanwhile in Australia:

  • 2014/05/18: RNE: AGL Energy calls for end of support for rooftop solar
  • 2014/05/17: ABC(Au): Mine closures 'just the start' as falling coal prices take toll on Hunter mining industry
  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Integra lays off 500 coal miners near Singleton in NSW Hunter Valley, blames coal prices
  • 2014/05/16: JQuiggin: Australian right a dumping ground for failed US ideas
  • 2014/05/16: RNE: Five things we learned about ... the Far Right and renewables
  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): New peak fishing body for NSW
    A new peak fishing body was formed this week to rally against the proposed fishing reforms in New South Wales. The General Manager of the Ballina Fishermans Co op, Phil Hilliard met the Minister for the Department of Primary Industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, to let her know that the current proposed reform would destroy the fishing industry in NSW.
  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Exmouth flood clean-up bill put at nearly $5m
    The Shire of Exmouth says it will cost nearly $5 million to repair damage caused by heavy rainfall and associated flooding in the town late last month.
  • 2014/05/15: RNE: Utilities bring in new blood, still clinging to fossil fuels
  • 2014/05/15: RNE: Sydney plans to use 95% of its waste for heat and energy
  • 2014/05/15: TheConversation: Rudd humbled, but real lessons of insulation scheme go unlearned
  • 2014/05/14: RNE: ARENA to continue operations, as long as Senate supports it
  • 2014/05/14: AIMN: Clive Palmer's Abbot Point Bid a Titanic Disaster
  • 2014/05/14: ABC(Au): Home insulation royal commission: Peter Garrett 'gutted' after installer's death
  • 2014/05/13: TheConversation: Petrol prices are on the way up, but don't blame the fuel excise
  • 2014/05/13: JQuiggin: Don't Follow Leaders, Watch The Parking Meters
  • 2014/05/13: RNE: Pollie Watch: Angus Taylor, Liberal against renewable energy
  • 2014/05/12: TheConversation: In Conversation: Australia needs tax breaks for innovation
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Police union voices concerns about Bentley anti-gas protest operation
  • 2014/05/12: RNE: 9 reasons why renewables can't be blamed for soaring energy bills
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Galilee Basin coal mine: Queensland government granted approval despite expert environmental concerns
    Australia's biggest coal mine project has been given the green light despite serious environmental concerns raised by experts appointed by the Commonwealth. The Queensland Government last week approved Indian company Adani's plan for a giant mine in the Galilee Basin west of Rockhampton. The $16.5 billion project would be the largest coal mine in the nation and one of the biggest in the world, covering 200 square kilometres and producing about 60 million tonnes of coal a year.

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

  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Federal Government proposes changes to EBPC
    The Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt is defending proposed changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Earlier this week, the Minister introduced a Bill to Parliament, to give back to the states the power to approve major coal and coal seam gas proposals, under what's known as the Water Trigger.
  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): George the bull sees red over renewable energy
  • 2014/05/16: RNE: Abbott's clean energy cull: The green projects we may never see
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): [Campbell Newman's Queensland Government] dismisses environmental concerns surrounding Carmichael mine
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Soon-to-be-axed Australian Renewable Energy Agency [ARENA] speaks out
  • 2014/05/12: RNE: Solar economics: Not even Tony Abbott can kill rooftop PV

  The Abbott government delivered their budget this week:

  • 2014/05/18: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: State and territory leaders reject budget cuts, want urgent meeting with PM
    State and territory leaders have united in condemnation of federal budget cuts to schools and hospitals, and are demanding an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Tony Abbott to resolve the issue.
  • 2014/05/18: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: Tony Abbott says voters were 'on notice' for cuts before election...
  • 2014/05/18: JQuiggin: Core promises (repost from 2008)
  • 2014/05/17: ABC(Au): Cate Blanchett describes budget cuts to the arts as 'short-sighted'
  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Landcare on Green Army
    The picture of a $500 million Green Army, marching into rural towns to regenerate landscapes is quite impressive, but some within the ranks of Landcare, which was cut by $483 million in the Federal Budget, certainly aren't impressed.
  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop heckled by University of Sydney students angry at budget cuts
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): CSIRO climate research takes big hit in Budget
    The CSIRO Staff Association says it's deeply concerned about the Federal Government's decision to axe millions of dollars worth of climate research funding. The Australian Climate Change Science Program has been dissolved and merged into a new National Environmental Science scheme, saving the Commonwealth almost $22 million. The CSIRO will lose more than $110 million over the next four years and 420 people will lose their jobs.
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: Tony Abbott dismisses John Howard's criticism of federal budget cuts
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: State and territory leaders organise urgent meeting over $80 billion health, education cuts
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: Funding for secular counsellors cut in school chaplaincy program
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au):TDU: Hockey exposes us as fair weather friends
    With this Budget, Joe Hockey has signaled to the rest of the planet that Australia expects to free ride on the efforts of others. He has abandoned the core Australian value of being true blue, writes David Ritter.
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Research centre gets $9m to study coastal climate change risks
    A Gold Coast research facility will use a $9 million federal budget allocation to further its study of climate change and its impact. The National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility based at Griffith University will work with scientists, state and community organisations to help local governments make better decisions about managing the impacts of climate change. Research fellow Dr Sarah Boulter says it is critically important to find ways to adapt to changes caused by climate change.
  • 2014/05/15: RNE: Abbott stomps on energy efficiency, ethanol and algae
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says Labor will oppose at least $12 billion worth of cuts
  • 2014/05/14: ABC(Au): The budget has it backwards on climate
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: ACCC gets $10 million to monitor carbon tax repeal
  • 2014/05/15: TheConversation: CSIRO cuts 'will rob Australian industry of research expertise'
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: Clean energy bodies call for compensation as Government cuts green funding
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Government axes renewable energy agency
    The government plans to axe the funding body for new technologies in renewable energy, ARENA the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, in order to save a billion dollars.
  • 2014/05/14: AIMN: Federal Budget Summary 2014: The Abbott Government sets its agenda
  • 2014/05/14: CCurrents: Australia : Changes For The Worst
  • 2014/05/14: CCP: Australia: Angry head of renewable energy agency says axing will leave energy sector obsolete
  • 2014/05/14: TheConversation: Litany of deep cuts for environmental programs
  • 2014/05/14: TheConversation: Billions axed in clean energy: renewable target is next
  • 2014/05/14: ABC(Au): Australian Renewable Energy Agency [ARENA] axed in Budget
  • 2014/05/14: ABC(Au): Budget lacks 'strategic vision' for science
  • 2014/05/14: NatureN: Australia shakes up science budget
    Clean energy agency axed and major funding cuts hit the government's science agency, while biomedical research celebrates gains.
  • 2014/05/14: TNSD: Forget the debt crisis, this Budget exemplifies a political deficit crisis
  • 2014/05/14: Guardian(UK): This budget is a clear victory for Australia's 1%
    No progress on tax avoidance, no sign that Australia will responsibly lead the G20, no reform of expensive concessions to the wealthy: this budget is a massive moral failure
  • 2014/05/14: RNE: Budget shenanigans highlight risks of Emissions Reduction Fund
  • 2014/05/14: RNE: Not so much a budget, as a settling of old scores
  • 2014/05/14: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: Senate showdown looms after Clive Palmer's 'no back-down' pledge on GP co-payments
  • 2014/05/14: ABC(Au): Budget 'based on lies', says Clive Palmer
  • 2014/05/13: ScienceInsider: Australia's New Budget Hard on Nonbiomedical Science
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Major changes ahead for ethanol and biodiesel
    The ethanol and biodiesel industries face grant cuts worth millions of dollars in a tough Federal Budget for alternative fuels.
  • 2014/05/13: NewMatilda: Highlights Of Hockey's 2014 Budget
  • 2014/05/13: TheConversation: 'Green tape' cuts: industry wins, locals and the environment lose
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Funding worries aired for solar thermal push ahead of federal budget
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Questions still to be answered on Landcare's future
    The Federal Government has slashed funding for community Landcare grants in the Budget, and is still in the process of working out how groups can apply for remaining funds. A new National Landcare Program has been established in this Budget.
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Mixed Budget bag for Agriculture Department
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Big cuts to CSIRO and research centre funding
  • 2014/05/13: RNE: Do I need to move overseas to work in renewables industry?
  • 2014/05/13: RNE: Baseload to be marginalised as solar takes pole position
  • 2014/05/13: RNE: Australia dumps clean energy in favour of asphalt economy
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Behind the budget: Cut through the spin with more than 30 fact checks
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: Planets must align for Tony Abbott to reconcile tale of two deficits
  • 2014/05/12: TheConversation: Environmental job cuts risk a repeat of Gladstone failures
  • 2014/05/12: RNE: ARENA to go as Abbott breaks more promises on clean energy
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Budget 2014: Axe to fall on government agencies in search for savings
    The Abbott Government says it will save nearly $500 million in tomorrow's budget by taking an axe to Commonwealth agencies. A further 36 government bodies will be abolished on top of the 40 already slated for closure.

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

  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Indigenous protesters demand water rights
    Protesters from the Northern Land Council (NLC) have stormed a Northern Territory water forum on in Katherine today. Carrying placards and banners, the protesters demanded that the NT Government reinstate water allocations to Aboriginal traditional owners. The NT Government decided to cancel the water allocations known as 'Strategic Indigenous Reserves' last year.
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): National Water Commission abolished
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Murray-Darling Basin Authority will survive the Budget

  The Federal and now the State Liberals are bent on trashing the hard won Tasmanian forest deal:

  • 2014/05/17: ABC(Au): World Heritage Committee told to reject Federal Government bid to delist 74,000 hectares of Tasmanian forest
  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Community outcry delays logging in Tasmania
  • 2014/05/15: TheConversation: Tasmanian forestry plans a revival beyond World Heritage
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Government stands firm on bid to reduce Tasmanian forest World Heritage listing
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Senate inquiry urges Coalition to drop plans to delisting Tasmania's World Heritage Area
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Environmentalists warn Tas forest war will resume if world heritage listing revoked
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Draft decision on Tasmanian World Heritage delisting expected
    The United Nations World Heritage Committee is expected to soon release a draft decision on the Federal Government's request to nearly halve the Tasmanian forest extension. More than 172,000 hectares of forest was added to the World Heritage Area is Tasmania last year. The protection of the reserves was the keystone of the Tasmanian Forest Agreement: a deal that the current Government opposes.

  The fight over coal seam gas continues:

  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Metgasco to seek compensation from NSW government for suspending its Bentley licence to drill
  • 2014/05/15: RNE: NSW gas drilling project suspended, referred to ICAC
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Metgasco referred to ICAC; Bentley gas drilling suspended
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): Protesters celebrate as Metgasco CSG drilling licence suspended
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): States to have say on 'water trigger' for coal and CSG projects
  • 2014/05/15: ABC(Au): NSW Government scuttles gas project
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): More research needed on impact of CSG on land sales
  • 2014/05/13: ABC(Au): Conflict over CSG can cost business a bomb
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Indigenous support aired for Dingo Gas Field start
    Traditional owners have welcomed the start of construction on a $20 million gas project in central Australia. The Dingo Gas Field is only the second project in the past three decades to secure a production licence in the Northern Territory.

  And in the Indian subcontinent:

  • 2014/05/17: CleanTechnica: Narendra Modi Faces Test To Revive India's Renewable Energy Sector
  • 2014/05/16: Asia Times: Modi, BJP sweep to power in India
  • 2014/05/16: CCurrents: Hindu Supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party Comes To Power In India
  • 2014/05/16: RT: 'Modi-fied' India: Implications of BJP's landslide win
  • 2014/05/16: DemNow: India Elects Hard-Right Hindu Nationalist as New Indian Prime Minister Backed by Corporate Interests
  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): India's Narendra Modi declares victory for BJP party in landslide result
    New Indian leader Narendra Modi has promised "good days are coming" in his first reaction to a historic victory by his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in national elections. "India has won. Good days are coming," Mr Modi wrote on Twitter shortly before he went to seek blessings from his mother in his home state of Gujarat. Meanwhile, India's ruling Congress party has conceded defeat as election results show a landslide win for the opposition BJP under their Hindu nationalist leader.
  • 2014/05/16: Xinhuanet: Feature: Indians bet fate on common man in giving sweeping victory to BJP
  • 2014/05/15: BBC: India election: vote counting due to begin
    India is set to count the hundreds of millions of votes cast during its mammoth nine-phase general election.
  • 2014/05/14: CCurrents: Six Injured In Koodankulam Nuclear Plant Accident
  • 2014/05/13: CleanTechnica: Can India Go 100% Renewable by 2050?
  • 2014/05/13: RNE: Thiess Indian coal plans ended by landowner opposition
    Prolonged opposition to the proposed huge Pakri Barwadih coal mine in India, which could displace hundreds of villagers, has resulted in a subsidiary of the Australian construction company Thiess being stripped of a $5.5 billion mining contract.
  • 2014/05/12: BBC: India election: Narendra Modi faces Arvind Kejriwal on final vote day
    The final day of voting has begun in India's general election, with huge crowds turning up in the sacred city of Varanasi, a key election battleground.
  • 2014/05/12: al Jazeera: India votes in final phase of election
    More than 66 million voters eligible to cast their ballots in three electorally critical states in the final phase.

  While in China:

  • 2014/05/16: TP:JR: In Latest Step In Its 'War On Smog' Effort, China Says It Will Triple Solar Capacity By 2017
  • 2014/05/14: DOE:TiE: China produces and consumes almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined
  • 2014/05/12: RTCC: China's coal emissions could peak by 2020
    China's coal consumption could start to drop by 2020 or even earlier, as discussions get underway on how the government's 13th Five-Year Plan could tackle climate change.

  And Japan:

  • 2014/05/17: CleanTechnica: Solar Power Booming In Japan

  While elsewhere in Asia:

  • 2014/05/15: RScribbler: On Death Ground: Bangladesh is Fighting for its Life by Installing Solar Panels -- Why Every Coastal City, State and Country Should Follow Suit
  • 2014/05/15: SciAm:GB: In Indonesia, a Worrying Silence on Climate Change

  In the Middle East:

  • 2014/05/14: CleanTechnica: Iran Going Big With Renewables! 5,000 MW Of New Solar & Wind Capacity By 2018?

  While in Africa:

  • 2014/05/14: CleanTechnica: Is 3,000 MW Of New Nigeria Solar Power A Model To End Energy Poverty?
  • 2014/05/14: WSWS: ANC's parliamentary majority reduced amid worsening economic conditions

  And South America:

  • 2014/05/16: UDW: Bagua Massacre -- A Test for Justice in Peru
  • 2014/05/16: RTCC: Brazil 'unprepared' for climate change, warns leading scientist
    Brazil's plans to adapt to a changing climate are well behind schedule, a leading scientist at the national Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has warned. With 200 million people Brazil is the largest South American country, and is acutely vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, says Carlos Nobre, Secretary of Research and Development Policies and Programmes.
  • 2014/05/15: CPunch: The Short List -- 10 Reasons to Love Uruguay's President José Mujica
  • 2014/05/13: UDW: Conflict Over New Bolivian Law Highlights Mining Sector Contradictions
  • 2014/05/13: ICN: New Amazon Forest Law: Will It Stick?
    Attempting to better understand Brazil's controversial new forest code and its future results in wildly different interpretations.
  • 2014/05/13: CPunch: No Turning Back -- Mexico's Looming Fracking and Offshore Oil and Gas Bonanza
  • 2014/05/12: DeSmogBlog: "No Turning Back:" Mexico's Looming Fracking and Offshore Oil and Gas Bonanza
  • 2014/05/11: TruthDig: Brazil Beef Tax Could Spare Forests

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

  • 2014/05/15: CBC: 'Occupation' wording puts Canada at odds with UN fish plan
    Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs won't support 'in situations of occupation' wording in UN plan
  • 2014/05/15: CBC: Stephen Harper reveals new National Conservation Plan
  • 2014/05/13: TStar: Legal community demands Stephen Harper withdraw criticism of Beverley McLachlin
    An outraged Canadian legal community is marshalling criticism of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, writing an open letter to him and at the same time seeking outside international help to reaffirm the independence of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

  Resonances of the Lac Mégantic tragedy linger:

  • 2014/05/17: TP:JR: Railroad CEO Wants To Send Oil Trains Through Town Where Derailment Killed 47 Last Year
  • 2014/05/17: RT: Oil railway looks to reopen after massive Quebec explosion
  • 2014/05/16: NNW: Railroad wants to send oil into Lac-Megantic after fixes
  • 2014/05/16: CBC: Lac-Mégantic new rail owner plans to restart oil shipments
    Central Maine and Quebec Railway plans to ship oil within 18 months after making safety improvements
  • 2014/05/15: CBC: Sale of railroad blamed in Lac-Mégantic disaster finalized
    Bankrupt Montreal, Maine and Atlantic sold for $15.85M
  • 2014/05/15: Tyee: IMF Pegs Canada's Fossil Fuel Subsidies at $34 Billion
  • 2014/05/14: CDreams: Lac-Mégantic Residents Decry Charging of Low-Level Employees Over Deadly Disaster
  • 2014/05/13: CBC: Lac-Mégantic families welcome charges against MM&A Railway workers
  • 2014/05/13: BBerg: Quebec Crash Railway, Employees Charged With Negligence
  • 2014/05/12: NNW: Charges laid in Lac-Megantic train disaster
  • 2014/05/12: CBC: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster oil remains in Chaudière River
  • 2014/05/12: CBC: MM&A Railway faces charges in Lac-Mégantic disaster
    Crown says 47 counts of criminal negligence filed against 3 people and MM&A Railway The Crown prosecutor's office says three people and a train company will face criminal negligence charges stemming from a railway disaster that killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, Que., last summer. The prosecutor's office says 47 counts of criminal negligence have been filed against Thomas Harding, Jean Demaitre and Richard Labrie as well as the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway Ltd., the defunct railway at the heart of the disaster.

  The Harper gang is pushing fundamentally destructive science policies:

  • 2014/05/14: Tyee: Canadian Science Goes Down the Drain
    A limnologist laments the deserted Experimental Lakes, sapped fisheries management, and more

  The abortion issue got some time this week:

  • 2014/05/14: CBC: Abortion debate nixed as NDP shifts focus to CBC funding cuts
  • 2014/05/14: CBC: Rona Ambrose urged by Liberals to review N.B. abortion rules -- MPs want federal health minister to launch dispute resolution process
  • 2014/05/13: CBC: NDP could trigger House debate on abortion later this week
    Motion also targets government over funding for family planning and abortion access outside Canada
  • 2014/05/13: CBC: Abortion-rights move by NDP to embarrass Liberals could backfire
    New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair criticized earlier abortion motions for reopening debate

  In the Opposition parties...

  • 2014/05/13: BBerg: Mulcair Says Canada Pipeline Plans Need Public Backing
    Thomas Mulcair, leader of Canada's main opposition party, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper's efforts to construct energy infrastructure are failing because the ruling Conservatives haven't built public support. An approach that creates refining jobs in Canada, addresses concerns of First Nations groups and builds credibility on climate change would be more successful, Mulcair said in an interview at Bloomberg's Canada Economic Summit. "If you don't have a social license at the same time you are getting the regulatory license, nothing gets built," said Mulcair, adding the nation needs to find an outlet for the its petroleum products.

  Funny. I didn't hear a thing about this until days later:

  • 2014/05/15: CleanTechnica: Canadians Take To The Streets To "Defend Our Climate"

  I'm hearing different stories about these pipeline rules:

  • 2014/05/16: CBC: New pipeline rules don't reach 'world class' standard
    New regulations seen as big improvements, but don't go far enough, critics say
  • 2014/05/16: TheCanadian: Spill liability changes could be paving way for Enbridge approval
  • 2014/05/14: WaPo: Canada: Pipeline firms will pick up spill costs
  • 2014/05/14: CBC: Pipeline companies to be liable for $1B even when not at fault
    Federal pipeline safety announcement introduces concept of 'absolute liability' The federal government is introducing legislation to make companies on all federally regulated pipelines responsible for the first $1 billion in cleanup costs from an oil spill, even when they're not at fault. Speaking Wednesday in Vancouver, Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford said the government is building on pipeline safety legislation it introduced last year. "All companies will continue to have unlimited liability when at fault or negligent," he said.
  • 2014/05/13: CBC: New tanker spill rules raise liability for companies
    [...]
    Speaking to a crowd in Saint John, Raitt said her government will instead raise the liability for a company that has an oil spill from the current $161 million per incident to $400 million per spill. The government will also impose a levy on companies, with a total of $1.6 billion available to clean up an oil spill and provide compensation.
  • 2014/05/13: TheCanadian: Tougher Canadian oil tanker rules leave liability cap in place

  Mowat memorial:

  • 2014/05/13: CBC: Farley Mowat celebrated at memorial service

  There are getting to be so manyoil [2] andnatural gas [2]pipelines, one almost needs a scorecard:

  1. The TransCanada West-East [aka Energy East] pipeline has passed the first stage
  2. The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on
  3. There are hearings for the Kinder Morgan expansion coming up
  4. UN special rapporteur James Anaya syas watch out

  The TransCanada West-East [aka Energy East] pipeline has passed the first stage:

  • 2014/05/16: DeSmogBlog: Federal Regulator Acting "Impermissibly in Favour" of TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline, Says Lawyer
  • 2014/05/13: BBerg: Keystone Delays Fuel Push for Canada East Oil Pipeline

  The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

  • 2014/05/16: TheCanadian: Spill liability changes could be paving way for Enbridge approval
  • 2014/05/15: al Jazeera:USA: Big mammals vs. big oil: New pipeline puts humpback whales at risk
    Canada says humpback whales aren't endangered, which allows a proposed oil pipeline to cut across their feeding grounds

  There is wrangling over the NEB trying to restrict the Kinder Morgan expansion hearings:

  • 2014/05/12: TheCanadian: First Nation's legal challenge could delay Kinder Morgan pipeline
  • 2014/05/12: PostMedia: Legal challenges could stall decision on Kinder Morgan pipeline: experts
    $5.4-billion project faces constitutional, aboriginal and procedural actions The federal government's efforts to speed up decisions on oil pipelines are at risk of backfiring, according to legal and policy observers. In the first real test of the National Energy Board's new review rules, Kinder Morgan's $5.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline is being assailed with legal action and a flurry of motions calling for a more open and lengthy public process. The federal review of the pipeline expansion -- which will nearly triple oil output and bring another 400 tankers each year to the Burrard Inlet -- is set to begin in August and supposed to be complete in 15 months. But the challenges -- particularly those from First Nations -- have the potential to be successful and delay a decision on the project, says University of B.C. law professor Gordon Christie.

  The UN special rapporteur for the rights of indigenous peoples reported this week:

  • 2014/05/12: Tyee: Pipelines Risk 'Social Peace': UN Envoy
  • 2014/05/12: BBC: Canada faces 'crisis' on indigenous living conditions
    Canada faces a "crisis" over the living conditions of its aboriginal residents, the UN special rapporteur for the rights of indigenous peoples [James Anaya] has said.

  What's the state of the West Coast salmon fishery?

  • 2014/05/12: TheCanadian: 60 Minutes grills BC salmon farmers, government
  • 2014/05/11: AlexandraMorton: 60 Minutes Airs Show on BC Salmon Farming

  Meanwhile in BC:

  • 2014/05/16: NI: LNG facilities: siting, safety, regulation
  • 2014/05/16: TheCanadian: LNG Pipedreams: Feat. Liz Logan, Damien Gillis - May 21
  • 2014/05/14: Tyee: Religious Leaders 'Faith Off' Against Texada Coal Terminal -- Congregations raise flags over BC thermal coal exports
  • 2014/05/13: DeSmogBlog: Religious Leaders Call on Christy Clark to End Coal Exports
  • 2014/05/13: TheCanadian: Woodfibre LNG to be powered by hydroelectricity
  • 2014/05/12: DeSmogBlog: Fight Over New Prosperity Mine Challenges Federal Government's Environmental Assessment Powers
  • 2014/05/12: TheCanadian: Vaughn Palmer: Site C Dam obsession misses alternatives like geothermal
  • 2014/05/12: TheCanadian: Rafe Mair: Howe Sound under siege

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

  • 2014/05/13: CBC: Encana profit up to $116M on higher revenues

  Also in Alberta:

  • 2014/05/16: CBC: Jim Prentice officially in Alberta PC leadership race
  • 2014/05/15: G&M: Critics take aim at Alberta plan to sell endangered-caribou habitat
    Alberta's decision to sell off for energy development habitat that supports two endangered caribou herds is bad science, bad politics and bad economics, say environmentalists, scientists and opposition politicians.
  • 2014/05/14: TP:JR: Instead Of Preserving Endangered Caribou Habitat, Canada Is Selling It To Big Oil
  • 2014/05/14: CBC: Alberta selling mountain caribou habitat

  In Ontario, Wynne has been forced into an election. Poll date is June 12th:

  • 2014/05/16: iPolitics: The Ekos poll: Advantage, Wynne
    The Ontario provincial campaign is shaping up to be one of the most interesting campaigns in recent political history. It features two sharply contradictory policy visions: an austerity/minimal government model versus a progressive, active-state intervention model. Superimposed on that stark choice are the twin factors of regime fatigue and ethics -- both of which are confounding voters' decision-making in ways which make the outcome of this race highly uncertain.
  • 2014/05/16: MSimon: The Abominable Tim Hudak and the Koch Connection
  • 2014/05/16: CBC: Tim Hudak vows to scrap light rail lines, cancel GO electrification
  • 2014/05/16: NorRe: In League With The Elite
  • 2014/05/14: TreeHugger: Front-running contender to lead Ontario would close down green energy
  • 2014/05/14: CBC: Ontario PC platform draws strong reaction from CBCnews.ca readers

  In the North:

  • 2014/05/16: CleanTechnica: New Yukon Hydroelectric Work Plan Released
  • 2014/05/16: CBC: Attawapiskat flooding forces hundreds from homes
  • 2014/05/11: CBC: Kashechewan First Nation evacuation escalates
    More people forced from their homes as Albany River flooding continues in Kashechewan

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

  • 2014/05/14: CD: Climate change a central issue at upcoming Peoples' Social Forum

  And on the American political front:

  • 2014/05/17: PSinclair: Great Moments in Political Science: North Carolina Will Look at Sea Level, but Only 30 Years Out
  • 2014/05/16: RNE: Where are conservatives' big ideas about clean energy?
  • 2014/05/16: UCSUSA:B: How One State Cut its Carbon and Created Jobs
  • 2014/05/16: RTCC: New US coal standards 'critical' test of Obama's climate policy
  • 2014/05/16: TRP: Things Totally Not Caused by Climate Change
  • 2014/05/16: CPunch: The Cult of Ignorance -- Republicans Declare War on the Planet
  • 2014/05/16: CensoredNews: Hihansun wakpa oyate camp for protection from Keystone tarsands pipeline
  • 2014/05/15: NYT: Points of No Return
  • 2014/05/15: BoulderWeekly: Buying in -- How the oil and gas industry is backing a fracking-friendly election
    Though the election is six months away, the oil and gas industry is already plunging millions of dollars into campaigns to quash proposals seeking to give local governments the power to limit or ban fracking.
  • 2014/05/15: UCSUSA:B: Governor Kasich Should Stand with Ohio and Support Clean Energy
  • 2014/05/15: DD: Utah scientists: End 'fake debate' over climate, cut carbon emissions
  • 2014/05/14: CCP: Gov. Jerry Frackinator Brown says sea level rise could mean costly move for LAX airport
  • 2014/05/14: Grist: Enviros pump money and energy into Colorado Senate race
  • 2014/05/13: HouseOfDebt: Food Stamps and Failed Economic Policies
  • 2014/05/13: CleanTechnica: Solar Power & Other Renewables -- Will California's SB 43 Ensure Access To Solar For Everyone?
  • 2014/05/13: NatureN: Call for better oversight of nuclear-waste storage
    Accident at US repository highlights need for tougher safety monitoring, say experts.
  • 2014/05/12: EnvEcon: "The commons are still tragic"
  • 2014/05/12: OilChange: California's Governor is Doing Big Oil's Dirty Work on Fracking
  • 2014/05/12: DenverPost: Colorado energy measures expected to attract big names, deep pockets
  • 2014/05/12: WVGazette: The climate is changing, but don't expect confirmation from W.Va. pols
  • 2014/05/12: BBerg: Alabama Avoids Preparing for Rising Seas Menacing Mobile
  • 2014/05/11: TP:JR: Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick Calls For 'Future Free Of Fossil Fuels,' And Zero Coal In Four Years

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

  • 2014/05/16: NYT: Jane Kleeb vs. the Keystone Pipeline
  • 2014/05/15: ICN: What the U.S. Climate Assessment Has to Do With the KXL Decision
    The pipeline originated in the Bush era, when similar climate reports had the status of orphan or pariah. Times have changed.
  • 2014/05/14: CBC: TransCanada deadline to accept Keystone XL easement deals today
    Nebraska landowners who don't sign today will have to settle for less generous deals, company says
  • 2014/05/12: ICN: KXL and the National Interest: Obama Is in Uncharted Territory
    When two previous presidential pipeline approvals were made, America's energy and climate change future looked a lot different.

  Leaks and spills:

  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: America's Oil And Gas Industry Averaged At Least 20 Spills Per Day In 2013
  • 2014/05/13: Grist: A whole lot of oil spilled in the U.S. in 2013Jeez! It's getting hard to keep all the spills and leaks straight. You need a map. Let's see...:
    1. In the Gulf of Mexico, BP and company had the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
    2. In North Dakota, a Ron Burgundy oil well is leaking
    3. Atwater Village strip club inundated

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

  • 2014/05/11: NatureN: Bacteria left a methane mess after spill
    Study contradicts notion that microbes consumed most of the gas after 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.

  In North Dakota, a Ron Burgundy oil well is leaking:

  • 2014/05/14: Grist: Ron Burgundy is struggling with incontinence -- the oil well, I mean
  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: A Confidential Fracking Well Named Ron Burgundy Is Leaking In North Dakota

  An Atwater Village strip club in Los Angeles was anointed with 10,000 gallons of crude oil:

  • 2014/05/15: TP:JR: Massive Pipeline Rupture Coats Streets Of Los Angeles In 'Knee-High' Crude Oil
  • 2014/05/15: Grist: Strip club flooded by oil spill in L.A.
  • 2014/05/15: LA Times: 10,000-gallon crude oil spill in Atwater Village looked 'like a lake'
  • 2014/05/15: BBerg: Plains Crude Pipe Leak Maroons L.A. Gentlemen's Club Patrons
  • 2014/05/15: CBC: Los Angeles oil spill mopped up with vacuums, soap, diapers
    Officials downscale size of spill to 38,000 litres from earlier estimate of 190,000 litres Thousands of litres of crude that spilled onto a Los Angeles street Thursday was being cleaned up with absorbent diapers, soap, and vacuums. The oil, which spread over a one-kilometre-long area, came from a break in an above-ground Plains West Coast pipeline, the city fire department said. The spill was 38,000 litres, according to Captain Jamie Moore with the Los Angeles Fire Department. The pipeline runs from the San Joaquin Valley in California to Long Beach, Moore said. The break in the pipeline was at a pump station in an industrial area near San Fernando Road in Atwater Village, the fire department said. The Plains West Coast pipeline is run by Plains Pipeline LP, a unit of Plains All American, which confirmed that the leak occurred at its pump station.

  The GOP War on Women continues:

  • 2014/05/16: ACLU: ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Court to Protect Safe and Legal Abortion in Alabama
    Trial Begins Monday in Case Challenging Dangerous Restrictions that Would Force All but Two Health Centers in the State to Stop Providing Abortions
  • 2014/05/15: Wonkette: Missouri Legislature Inches Closer To Goal Of 9-Month Waiting Period For Abortions
  • 2014/05/14: CDreams: Report: US Ranks First in Terrible Treatment of New Mothers
  • 2014/05/14: ACLU: Louisiana Senate Passes Texas-style Abortion Restriction
    Unnecessary Requirement Could Close Women's Health Centers Across the State
  • 2014/05/13: TruthDig: How the Right Wing Is Killing Women

  The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:

  • 2014/05/13: BBerg: Coal Missing Boom as Climate Foes Clean Asia's Backyard
    Bowie Resource Partners LLC wanted to export coal from the port of Oakland, California, promising thousands of construction jobs and a $3 million-a-year payroll in a city whose unemployment rate was almost double the national average. Oakland's response: No, thanks. "We weren't going to sell our souls here," Jack Fleck, a retired engineer and Oakland resident who spoke out against Bowie's plan, said by phone on May 12. "Whatever the economic benefit would've been, it wasn't worth destroying the planet over." Oakland's rejection marks a sea change in the fight against coal exports from the U.S. and underscores an emerging challenge for energy projects. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have scuttled three of six coal terminals proposed in the U.S. Pacific Northwest that would have shipped as much as 146 million metric tons annually to booming markets in Asia. Where coal projects were once fought on the grounds of local impact, opponents are uniting behind a cause more global in nature, climate change.

  The CNA report on National Security and Climate Change tweaked a limbic nerve:

  • 2014/05/13: CNA: [link to 5.1 meg pdf] National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change
  • 2014/05/15: CCP: U.S. Military Report: Climate Change is a 'Catalyst for Conflict'
  • 2014/05/15: RT: Climate change may cause conflict in Arctic, threats to security worldwide - former US generals [CNA]
  • 2014/05/14: DeSmogBlog: Republican Senator Inhofe Dismisses Top US Military Strategists on Climate Change Concerns
  • 2014/05/14: Grist: Military experts are worried about climate change, and you should be too
  • 2014/05/13: QuarkSoup: Is Denying Climate Change a Threat to National Security?

  Looking ahead to the 2016 election, it was a Rubio sort of week:

  • 2014/05/18: PSinclair: Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel: Rubio on Climate Change
  • 2014/05/15: Wonkette: Marco Rubio A Climatologist And An Obstetrician Now, Will Tell You When Babby Is Formed
  • 2014/05/15: PSinclair: Is Rubio the GOP's First Climate Denial Casualty?
  • 2014/05/14: DeSmogBlog: Marco Rubio Wants To Let The Planet Burn
  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: Rubio Can't Name A Single Source Behind His Climate Denialism
  • 2014/05/12: Ph&Ph: US Senator Marco Rubio Shifts Position And Thinks He's A Climate Expert
  • 2014/05/12: Wonkette: GOP Candidates For President In 2016 Already Getting A Jump On Looking Like Ignorant Mullet-Heads
  • 2014/05/12: TRP: GOP Senator Marco Rubio Is a Frighteningly Stupid Man Who Thinks He's Ready to Be President
  • 2014/05/12: DD: U.S. Senator Marco Rubio says human activity isn't causing climate change...
  • 2014/05/12: TP:JR: Regulators Failed To Inspect Thousands Of High-Priority Fracking Wells, [GAO] Report Finds
  • 2014/05/11: NYT: Rubio on a Presidential Bid, and Climate Change
  • 2014/05/11: HillHeat: Sen. Marco Rubio: "I Do Not Believe That Human Activity Is Causing These Dramatic Changes to the Climate"
  • 2014/05/11: TP:JR: Marco Rubio Goes Full-On Climate Denier

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

  • 2014/05/17: RealEconomics: Can these people even count?
  • 2014/05/16: Grist: EPA to clamp down on deadly oil refinery pollution
  • 2014/05/16: TP:JR: EPA Moves To Crack Down On Toxic Emissions From Oil Refineries
  • 2014/05/15: TP:JR: National Weather Service Scrambles To Fill Vacancies Before Summer Extreme Weather Strikes
  • 2014/05/14: DeSmogBlog: Pressure Grows on EPA to Regulate Toxic Air Pollution from Oil and Gas Industry
  • 2014/05/13: CleanTechnica: EPA Unearths $3.6 Million For More Green Jobs In Brownfields
  • 2014/05/12: TP:JR: EPA Regulations Probably Won't Tell Us Everything In Fracking Fluid
  • 2014/05/12: TreeHugger: Solar panels are back on the White House roof, 28 years later (it's about time!)

  As for what is going on in Congress:

  • 2014/05/16: Grist: Dysfunctional Senate fails to extend wind tax credit
  • 2014/05/13: BBerg: Energy Bill's Failure Shows Congress Can't Agree to Agree
  • 2014/05/13: GreenGrok: Energy Inefficiency: Congress Spins Wheels Until Bill Dies
  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: Bipartisan Bill That Would Have Strengthened U.S. Energy Efficiency Dies In Senate
  • 2014/05/12: Grist: Senate Republicans torpedo a non-controversial, bipartisan energy-efficiency bill
  • 2014/05/12: BBerg: Energy Efficiency Bill Dies in U.S. Senate After Feud
  • 2014/05/12: SciAm:PI: Senate bill shines light on the energy-water nexus
  • 2014/05/11: Grist: This bill would help build the kinds of communities where millennials want to live

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

  • 2014/05/15: Grist: Scott Brown urged GOP senators to kill energy efficiency bill
  • 2014/05/14: OilChange: EPA Asked to Regulate Fracking Emissions
  • 2014/05/13: ICN: EPA Asked to Regulate Fracking's Toxic Air Emissions
    Petition filed by 64 groups outlines concerns about air pollution from drilling in populated areas and demands robust regulation under the Clean Air Act.

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

  • 2014/05/17: NakedCapitalism: Current Problems Associated with the End of the Third Industrial Revolution
  • 2014/05/12: Tyee: A Future Green Utopia? Forget About It
    Flawed, messy and human is how two influential NYC designers see our shift to sustainability.
  • 2014/05/11: FuturePundit: The Tragedy Of The Commons Still Globally Unsolved

  What comes after Capitalism?

  • 2014/05/12: CCurrents: Uniting The People Of The World In A Sharing Economy

  What do we tell the children?

  • 2014/05/11: CCurrents: Children's Future Is Dependent On A Common Interest
  • 2014/05/11: CCurrents: Our Duty To Future Generations

  Apocalypso anyone?

  • 2014/05/14: UBardi: How to destroy a civilization
  • 2014/05/11: Resilience: On the edge by Noam Chomsky

  How do the corporate media measure up?

  • 2014/05/01: IndianaU: [link to 797k pdf] IU survey: U.S. journalists say they are less satisfied and have less autonomy
  • 2014/05/17: Guardian(UK): Murdoch-owned media hypes lone metereologist's climate junk science
    Absurd anti-science faux journalism flares up again - as usual, it's Big Oil that's set to benefit, not the public
  • 2014/05/16: KSJT: A good sign: The Washington Post hires its first science blogger.
  • 2014/05/16: CensoredNews: Six facts Indian country media doesn't want you to know
    The collapse of the media in Indian country fuels the destruction locally and globally
  • 2014/05/14: CCP: CNN Misses Out On Climate's "Oh My God" Moment
  • 2014/05/14: ERabett:BSD: The invisible modifier and another fine mess in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse
  • 2014/05/12: FAIR: The Wrong Response to Rubio's Climate Nonsense
  • 2014/05/12: KSJT: Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses what's wrong with science journalism

  Here is something for your library:

  • 2014/05/13: RSC: [Book Page] _Geoengineering of the Climate System_ edited by Roy Harrison & Ron Hester
  • 2014/05/12: TheConversation:Australia does have a budget emergency - it is all about carbon
    [Book Plug] _Power Failure: The Inside story of climate politics under Rudd and Gillard_ by Philip Chubb
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): The Great Barrier Reef: a battle with no end
    [Book Excerpt] _Coral Battleground_ by Judith Wright
    In 1977 Australian poet Judith Wright published a book chronicling her involvement in a campaign to protect the Great Barrier Reef from mining interests. In 2014, with the Reef under threat again, her book is being republished.

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

  • 2014/05/18: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Dr. Mauri Pelto on Antarctic Melt Part 2
  • 2014/05/17: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Dr. Mauri Pelto on Antarctic Melt, Part 1
  • 2014/05/17: CC&G: Tracking El Nino Forecasts
  • 2014/05/16: 350orBust: Neil DeGrasse Tyson On Climate Change, Humans, & Dinosaurs
  • 2014/05/16: Grist: The villain of Christopher Nolan's new movie is pretty terrifying -- guess who it is!
  • 2014/05/16: PSinclair: The Jetstream is a Nasty Drunk
  • 2014/05/15: PSinclair: Is Rubio the GOP's First Climate Denial Casualty?
  • 2014/05/15: PSinclair: Can the Tide Turn on Climate Politics?
  • 2014/05/15: PSinclair: How Sensitive is Climate? New Paper by Andrew Dessler
  • 2014/05/15: Wonkette: Stephen Colbert Pledges To Do More Nothing About Climate Change Than Anyone Else (Video)
  • 2014/05/14: AFTIC: John Oliver schools the MSM on climate change debating
  • 2014/05/14: PSinclair: More on Antarctic "Collapse"
  • 2014/05/13: PSinclair: Dark Snow Project 2014
  • 2014/05/13: UCSUSA:B: How Monsanto Supersized a Problem in Under Three Minutes
  • 2014/05/12: PSinclair: NASA Video: Antarctic Collapse Explained
  • 2014/05/12: Wonkette: John Oliver And Bill Nye Fix Everything That's Wrong With Climate Change Reporting (Video)
  • 2014/05/12: Wonkette: Watch Mika Brzezinski Shut Down Joe Scarborough As He Sputters About Climate Change
  • 2014/05/12: P3: John Oliver on the Climate "Debate"
  • 2014/05/12: CriticalAngle: John Oliver asks: Are there hats?
  • 2014/05/12: SBrophy: The "Climate Debate" on TV: John Oliver Gets It Exactly Right
  • 2014/05/12: PSinclair: Years of Living Dangerously: Governor Christie and the Kochtopus
  • 2014/05/12: PSinclair: Kevin Trenberth on El Nino: Part 2
  • 2014/05/12: PSinclair: John Oliver and the Statistically Representative Climate Debate
  • 2014/05/12: PSinclair: Rubio Smacked Back into Line on Denial
  • 2014/05/11: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Kevin Trenberth on the Coming El Nino, Part 1

  As for podcasts:

  • 2014/05/17: CBC:Q&Q: [mp3] West Antarctic Ice Slipping Away

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

  • 2014/05/17: CCP: U.S. insurer (Farmers Insurance) class action lawsuit against 200 Illinois towns may signal wave of climate-change suits
  • 2014/05/16: Reuters: U.S. insurer class action may signal wave of climate-change suits
  • 2014/05/14: CCP: Insurers sue Chicago-area towns in bid to get flood money
  • 2014/05/14: ICN: Texas Judge Gives No Restitution to Citgo's Victims in Pollution Case With Wide Implications
    Restitution would have included screenings for cancer and other diseases for victims exposed to chemicals from Citgo's illegally operated refinery
  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: Court Slaps Down Right Wing Attack On Colorado Clean Energy Standard
  • 2014/05/12: RepRep: Federal Judge Dismisses Libel Suit Brought By Coal CEO Robert Murray: The Opinion
  • 2014/05/12: Guardian(UK): New Zealand refuses climate change refugees -- mass action is now needed
    New Zealand's court of appeal has refused refugee status to a family from Kiribati, a Pacific island which is quickly sinking beneath the sea
  • 2014/05/12: Grist: Oil company poisons town; judge says it doesn't owe its victims a penny [Citgo refinery in Corpus Christi]
  • 2014/05/12: Grist: Another big EPA court victory -- this time on soot pollution

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

  • 2014/05/17: PSinclair: Wind Power Tower Proposed for Desert Areas
  • 2014/05/15: TP:JR: The Red Hot Renewable That Could Incite A Green Power Revolution
  • 2014/05/14: SwissInfo: St Gallen geothermal power project abandoned
    A plan in eastern Switzerland to supply geothermal electricity from underground heat has been axed. The city of St Gallen said there was not enough hot water to continue a project to build a power station using the renewable energy resource. Officials on Wednesday said the risks of further, small-scale earthquakes and financial issues had contributed to the decision.
  • 2014/05/14: CCurrents: 'Energy [R]evolution': Nearly 100% Renewable Is Doable
  • 2014/05/14: CleanTechnica: Time To Improve Energy Security
  • 2014/05/14: Eureka: New insight into thermoelectric materials may boost green technologies
  • 2014/05/14: CleanTechnica: Nukes, Schmukes: Energy Revolution Forecast By Greenpeace
  • 2014/05/12: GreenPeace: [links to several pdfs] Energy Revolution 2014 - A Sustainable USA Energy Outlook
  • 2014/05/14: RTCC: Waste could provide UK with unlimited energy resource
  • 2014/05/13: TheCanadian: 6 reasons why renewable energy is no joke
  • 2014/05/13: PeakEnergy: IEA says fossil fuels must be replaced by renewables
  • 2014/05/13: RNE: Renewables surge to 74% of German demand on Sunday
  • 2014/05/12: BNC: The clock is ticking on the drive for sustainable energy
  • 2014/05/12: RTCC: Renewable energy jobs hit 6.5 million in 2013 - [IRENA] report

  What's changing in energy investments?

  • 2014/05/15: RTCC: Fossil-free investment portfolios soared 50% in 2013

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

  • 2014/05/16: Grist: First responders vs. frackers: Who will win?
  • 2014/05/16: ICN: Fracking's Air Pollution Drives Couple From Their Home of 23 Years
  • 2014/05/16: DeSmogBlog: Spike in Stillborn and Neonatal Deaths Reported in Heavily Drilled Vernal, Utah
  • 2014/05/15: DeSmogBlog: Colorado Report on Birth Anomalies Near Fracking Sites Omits Key Factors
  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: Texas Legislature Starts Talking 'Frackquakes' While Oklahomans Get Quake Insurance
  • 2014/05/12: RT: Illegal 'fracking-like' oil drilling halted in ecologically-sensitive Everglades
  • 2014/05/12: TP:JR: EPA Regulations Probably Won't Tell Us Everything In Fracking Fluid
  • 2014/05/12: TP:JR: Regulators Failed To Inspect Thousands Of High-Priority Fracking Wells, [GAO] Report Finds
  • 2014/05/12: TP:JR: Company Drilling Near Everglades Claims Not To Be Fracking, Just Acid Fracking
  • 2014/05/12: Grist: Frackers are flooding the atmosphere with climate-warming methane
  • 2014/05/12: Grist: Do you think frackers should disclose the chemicals they use? EPA wants to know

  On the coal front:

  • 2014/05/16: WSWS: Illinois coal miner killed on the job
  • 2014/05/15: RNE: Beginning of the end for coal? Citi sees structural decline
  • 2014/05/14: DOE:TiE: China produces and consumes almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined
  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: 2 Die In West Virginia [coal] Mine Recently Cited For Pattern Of Violations
  • 2014/05/13: DeSmogBlog: Is Hector the Lump of Coal The World's Most Inappropriate Mascot For Kids?
  • 2014/05/13: RNE: Thiess Indian coal plans ended by landowner opposition
    Prolonged opposition to the proposed huge Pakri Barwadih coal mine in India, which could displace hundreds of villagers, has resulted in a subsidiary of the Australian construction company Thiess being stripped of a $5.5 billion mining contract.
  • 2014/05/12: CensoredNews: Video: Black Mesa resident denied access at Peabody coal shareholder meeting

  On the gas and oil front:

  • 2014/05/16: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
    OIL (US$/bbl)
    Dated Brent Spot....109.75
    WTI Cushing Spot....102.02
  • 2014/05/14: BBerg: U.S. Crude Output Advances to 28-Year High on Shale Boom
  • 2014/05/14: Eureka: By itself, abundant shale gas unlikely to alter climate projections
  • 2014/05/14: Resilience: The Status of U.S. Oil and Gas Production (Spring 2014)
  • 2014/05/13: PSinclair: Job Posting at Exxon [not satire]

  Ships and boats and trains -- How to tranport the stuff?

  • 2014/05/17: TP:JR: Railroad CEO Wants To Send Oil Trains Through Town Where Derailment Killed 47 Last Year
  • 2014/05/16: OregonLive: Railroads claim national security in keeping oil train routes secret, but feds say not so
  • 2014/05/13: CSM: Latest oil train derailment adds pressure for stronger US action
  • 2014/05/11: SJTimes: U.S. oil train regulations a good first step: Editorial

  Marvelous! Now the USA has their own Mechanical Mordor:

  • 2014/05/15: DeSmogBlog: American Sands Energy Corp. To Become Third Company to Mine Tar Sands in Utah

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Energy agency [IEA] predicts oil shortage unless supply boosted
  • 2014/05/16: BBC: UK's oil, coal and gas 'gone in five years'
    In just over five years Britain will have run out of oil, coal and gas, researchers have warned. A report by the Global Sustainability Institute said shortages would increase dependency on Norway, Qatar and Russia. There should be a "Europe-wide drive" towards wind, tidal, solar and other sources of renewable power, the institute's Prof Victor Anderson said. The government says complete energy independence is unnecessary, says BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin. The report says Russia has more than 50 years of oil, more than 100 years of gas and more than 500 years of coal left, on current consumption.

  The answer my friend...

  • 2014/05/16: RTCC: EU wind sector boosted by E3bn Dutch offshore investment
    Dutch wind farm project will help Netherlands to hit its 14% renewable energy target by 2020
  • 2014/05/15: CleanTechnica: Cerro Dominador Solar-Thermal Mega-Project [in Chile] Moves Forward
  • 2014/05/14: RNE: $450m Snowtown 2 wind farm to open ahead of schedule
  • 2014/05/14: RealEconomics: Increasing wind power efficiency with better forecasting and AI
  • 2014/05/12: CNN: Meet the BAT, an airborne wind turbine
    Engineers race to develop unmanned flying machine that turns wind to electricity - Altaeros Energies' helium-filled BAT may start Alaska field tests in 2015 - Google's Makani Turbine uses an airplane-like design - Worldwide, an estimated 1 billion rural residents have no access to electricity

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

  • 2014/05/17: CleanTechnica: Sharp Solar Profitable Again, Solar Cell Sales Surge 69%
  • 2014/05/17: CleanTechnica: Solar Power Booming In Japan
  • 2014/05/17: TP:JR: The Birthplace Of Big Oil Is About To Get Its Biggest Solar Plant Yet
  • 2014/05/16: RNE: Infratec, JA Solar to build 1MW solar plant in Cook Islands
  • 2014/05/14: Lenz: Pakistan Solar Desert Project
  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: Pakistan's First Solar Project Is One Of The World's Largest
    [The Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park project has 400,000 solar panels - will start generating 100 megawatts of energy by the end of the year and a total of 1,000 megawatts by 2016.]
  • 2014/05/13: RNE: IKEA rolls out 3.9MW of rooftop solar -- largest in Australia
  • 2014/05/13: RNE: Oz commercial solar market stirs as factories, libraries add rooftop PV
  • 2014/05/12: TreeHugger: Floating solar power to supply electricity for Singapore
  • 2014/05/12: TheCanadian: Phoenix rising: Largest solar power array set to energize 230,000 homes
  • 2014/05/12: CleanTechnica: SunEdison Interconnects 117 MW Of Utility-Scale Solar Projects In United Kingdom
  • 2014/05/12: CleanTechnica: SunFunder Finances Solar Projects In India, Africa, And Latin America
  • 2014/05/12: RNE: UBS says solar could be 10% of global capacity by 2020
  • 2014/05/12: RNE: Solar economics: Not even Tony Abbott can kill rooftop PV
  • 2014/05/12: ABC(Au): Floating solar power plant would reduce evaporation, proponent says

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

  • 2014/05/17: CBC: Cameco puts northern Sask. Millennium uranium mine on hold
    Uranium giant cites world uranium market conditions as reason to hold off on project licence
  • 2014/05/15: DerSpiegel: Bad Banks for Nuclear Plants: Utilities Look to German Taxpayers
    Fearing astronomical cost overruns, German utility companies want to shift responsibility for dismantling nuclear power plants to the government. Despite the billions of euros in risks it entails, the proposal could still prove attractive for Berlin.
  • 2014/05/13: NBF: Per Peterson has a modular molten salt nuclear reactor design in the US and is also working with China's molten salt nuclear reactor program
  • 2014/05/13: FukuLeaks: Taiwan New Nuclear Plants Fail Tests, Old Unit Out of Spent Fuel Space
  • 2014/05/12: Xinhuanet: China to set up nuclear emergency team
  • 2014/05/11: NBF: Mining has begun at the Husab Uranium mine in Namibia and it will reach 5770 tonnes of uranium per year in 2017
  • 2014/05/11: TBAS: Thorium: the wonder fuel that wasn't

  Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

  • 2014/05/16: WNN: Zero day for US nuclear waste fee
    The US Department of Energy (DoE) has stopped collecting nuclear waste fees from utilities, 16 years after missing its own deadline to open a permanent waste disposal site. The suspension of the fees has been welcomed by industry.
  • 2014/05/16: WNN: New UK waste facilities completed
    Two new radioactive waste facilities have opened in the UK. The first two vaults for the disposal of low-level waste have been completed at Dounreay, while the first intermediate-level waste (ILW) has been put into a new interim storage facility at Berkeley.
  • 2014/05/15: FukuLeaks: WIPP; DOE Admits Fire/Heat Event In Panel & Solidifying Agent May Play A Role
  • 2014/05/13: NatureN: Call for better oversight of nuclear-waste storage
    Accident at US repository highlights need for tougher safety monitoring, say experts.

  Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:

  • 2014/05/12: NBF: Josh Hall gave a talk on the history of Cold Fusion

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

  • 2014/05/13: GEB: BNetzA Starts Consultation on Scenario Frameworks for Electricity Grid Development Plans 2015/2025
  • 2014/05/12: CleanTechnica: Dutch Toyota Dealer Uses Prius Hybrid Batteries To Store Surplus Solar Power
  • 2014/05/11: UC3M: The largest electrical networks are not the best
    There is an optimum size for electrical networks if what is being considered is the risk of a blackout. This is the conclusion reached by a scientific study done by researchers at Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (UC3M); the study analyzes the dynamics of these complex infrastructures.

  How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?

  • 2014/05/18: RNE: AGL Energy calls for end of support for rooftop solar

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

  • 2014/05/16: TP:JR: New Video Game Consoles Waste More Energy, Even When You're Not Playing

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

  • 2014/05/17: AutoBG: NYT asks what happens when self-driving cars break the law
  • 2014/05/12: AutoBG: BYD gets order for 3,000 all-electric taxis, buses from Hangzhou, China

  As for Energy Storage:

  • 2014/05/15: UCR: Silly Putty Material Inspires Better Batteries
    Engineers use silicon dioxide to make lithium-ion batteries that last three times longer between charges compared to current standard
  • 2014/05/14: CleanTechnica: A Power Backup Solution For The Achilles Heel Of Grid-Tie Solar
  • 2014/05/14: UCSUSA:B: Creating Order in Chaos, Or Why I Study EV Battery Recycling
  • 2014/05/13: GCR: Dual-Carbon Battery: Same Energy Density, Safer, Longer Life Than Lithium-Ion, Says Power Japan Plus
  • 2014/05/13: TP:JR: Sales Of Hybrid And Electric Car Batteries Have Tripled In Three Years
  • 2014/05/12: CleanTechnica: New Graphene + Carbon Nanotube Supercapacitor Rivals Lithium Battery
  • 2014/05/12: TreeHugger: Plug-in vehicles and hybrids used 1.4 GWh of batteries in the first 3 months of 2014

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

  • 2014/05/16: CleanTechnica: Which Corporations Purchase The Most Clean Energy? EPA's Top 100 List Provides The Answer
  • 2014/05/15: CleanTechnica: Mars Agrees To Construct 200 MW Wind Farm
  • 2014/05/12: UCSUSA:B: How Green is your Data? Tech Companies and Energy Use

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

  • 2014/05/18: PSinclair: Class Action Suit by Insurer's may Shake up Local Governments in US
  • 2014/05/17: CCP: U.S. insurer (Farmers Insurance) class action lawsuit against 200 Illinois towns may signal wave of climate-change suits
  • 2014/05/16: Reuters: U.S. insurer class action may signal wave of climate-change suits
  • 2014/05/15: NewYorker: Insuring the Apocalypse
    Last week, the White House released the National Climate Assessment, and the news is grim.
    [...]
    For most businesspeople, climate change seems bad for the bottom line. But if you, like Berkshire Hathaway C.E.O. Warren Buffett, work in the disaster business, reports like the National Climate Assessment, all eight hundred and twenty-nine pages of it, are free advertising. In a recent television appearance, Buffett suggested that global warming -- at least the idea of it -- has been good for the insurance industry. "I love apocalyptic predictions on it because, you're right, it probably does affect rates," he told an interviewer. "The truth is that writing U.S. hurricane insurance has been very profitable in the last five or six years."
  • 2014/05/14: EENews: Insurance company sues Ill. cities for climate damage
  • 2014/05/15: RTCC: Security and insurance experts warn of future climate costs
    Billions at risk says Lloyd's of London, as military planners say drought and famine could cause new Arab Spring Powerful voices in finance and the armed forces have raised concerns about the risks of increasingly extreme weather events causing billions of dollars of damage and potentially igniting humanitarian disasters and regional conflicts
  • 2014/05/12: DD: Lloyd's of London: Insurers must adapt to climate change

  What do we have in (weekly) lists?

  • 2014/05/18: NewAnthropocene: Sunday Reads #3: All things climate, environmental and politics
  • 2014/05/17: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #20 by John Hartz
  • 2014/05/11: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Nuclear News Roundup

  Anything in pithy (or piffling) quotes this week?

  • 2014/05/12: GreenGrok: Climate Change Chatter: Science and Politics
  • 2014/05/11: QuarkSoup: 10 Good Quotes from Richard Feynman

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

  Note: You may notice my denialist coverage flagging. I am finding it increasingly difficult to give any attention to these people.

  • 2014/05/14: CleanTechnica: Koch Brothers Fruitlessly Spreading Misinformation On Renewable Energy
  • 2014/05/14: Grist: Bribes, favors, and a billion-dollar yacht: Inside the crazy world of the men who do oil companies' dirty work
  • 2014/05/16: NewAnthropocene: "Climate Always Changes..."
  • 2014/05/15: BoulderWeekly: Buying in -- How the oil and gas industry is backing a fracking-friendly election
    Though the election is six months away, the oil and gas industry is already plunging millions of dollars into campaigns to quash proposals seeking to give local governments the power to limit or ban fracking.
  • 2014/05/17: DD: Eight pseudoscientific climate claims debunked by real scientists
  • 2014/05/11: Resilience: Taxing the sun: The Koch brothers find a tax they like
  • 2014/05/11: Stoat: My opinion on the Global Climate Model clique feedback loop

  Silliness a la Bengtsson:

   

• 2014/05/17: HotWhopper: Denier weirdness: Ignominious legacy of a climate scientist
• 2014/05/17: C&S: The Bengtsson Affair
• 2014/05/17: ATTPh: linear vs non-linear
• 2014/05/17: Guardian(UK): Murdoch-owned media hypes lone metereologist's climate junk science
  Absurd anti-science faux journalism flares up again - as usual, it's Big Oil that's set to benefit, not the public
• 2014/05/16: JEB: Bengtsson burns his boats?
• 2014/05/16: QuarkSoup: Bengtsson Statement: No "Cover Up" in Climate Science
• 2014/05/16: DeSmogBlog: Environmental Research Letters Journal Debunks Conservative Media Claims It Suppressed Climate Research
• 2014/05/16: NatureNB: Climate row pits academic publisher against The Times
• 2014/05/16: ERabett: Even the Editors Are As Mad As Hell at Bengtsson
• 2014/05/16: ERabett: L'Affaire Bengtsson
• 2014/05/16: IOP: Statement from IOP Publishing on story in The Times
• 2014/05/16: SlashDot: Climate Journal Publishes Referees' Report In Response To "Witch-Hunt" Claims
• 2014/05/16: IP: Matt Ridley - Times Makes A Fool Of Him
• 2014/05/16: ATTPh: Lennart Bengtsson's paper
• 2014/05/15: ERabett: They Are Mad As Hell And Not Going to Take it Anymore
• 2014/05/15: GLaden: Lennart Bengtsson Joins, Quits Denialist Think Tank, Cries McCarthyism
• 2014/05/15: QuarkSoup: Bengtsson and McCarthyism
• 2014/05/14: QuarkSoup: Lennart Bengtsson resigns from GWPF
• 2014/05/14: HotWhopper: McCarthyism my foot! Stoat has the story about Lennart Bengtsson and the GWPF...
• 2014/05/14: IP: Deja vu all over again - the GWPF is losing friends
• 2014/05/14: Stoat: Ha ha: Lennart Bengtsson leaves advisory board of GWPF
• 2014/05/14: QuarkSoup: What Did Bengtsson and GWPF See In One Another?
• 2014/05/14: QuarkSoup: Lennart Bengtsson resigns from GWPF
• 2014/05/12: DerSpiegel: Climate Change Debate: A Famous Scientist Becomes a Skeptic
  Meteorologist Lennart Bengtsson has long been considered a cool head in the often heated conflict over global warming. In an interview, he defends his decision to join [GWPF] an organization that is skeptical of climate change.

• This week in intimidation:

• 2014/05/14: CCP: WWF staff receive death threats for opposing Virunga oil exploitation
• 2014/05/14: TP:JR: Opponents Of Oil Exploration In Africa's Largest Park Receive Death Threats
  

  So why is nothing getting done?

  • 2014/05/15: Grist: Stephen Colbert's refreshing solution for fighting climate change

  As for climate miscellanea:

  • 2014/05/14: CCP: Climate scientists need to set the record straight: There is a scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is happening
  • 2014/05/14: PSinclair: Scientists Record of Conservative Predictions on Climate Should Give Us Pause
  • 2014/05/14: CSM: Climate change is divisive. Climate solutions are not
  • 2014/05/15: Resilience: The Play's the Thing [misc]
  • 2014/05/16: Resilience: The end of the end of nature
  • 2014/05/12: IOTD: Melting Ice on Lake Baikal [on April 22]
  • 2014/05/11: QuarkSoup: Conrad Black Sees Michael Mann Winning
  • 2014/05/11: DeSmogBlog: Last Week was Crucial for Climate Science, Not So for Climate Politics

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

  • AGU Blogosphere
  • Seafood Watch
  • Greenwash Action
  • Solar Power World
  • Casey on Science - Earth Engineering
  • Oregon Right to Know
  • GSI: Global Sustainability Institute
  • Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy
  • The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
  • PhytoKeys [Journal]
  • Climate Justice Action
  • CDM Watch
  • IGBP-CCI Climate Change Index
  • CAN: Climate Action Network

  ---

  Low Key Plug

   

  My first novel _Water_ was published in May 2007. An Introduction is available.
  My most recent novel _The Bottleneck Years_ is being serialized online atmy siteand on AFTIC at Table of Contents
  If you want further information, see A Gentle Introduction. If you want a copy, see The Deal.
  An overview of my writing is available here.

  A Simple Plea

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

  <regards>

  -het

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

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

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  "[W]e're dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a rate the Earth hasn't seen since the great climate catastrophes of the past, the ones that led to mass extinctions. We just can't seem to break our addiction to the kinds of fuel that will bring back a climate last seen by the dinosaurs, a climate that will drown our coastal cities and wreak havoc on the environment and our ability to feed ourselves. All the while, the glorious sun pours immaculate free energy down upon us, more than we will ever need. Why can't we summon the ingenuity and courage of the generations that came before us? The dinosaurs never saw that asteroid coming. What's our excuse?" -Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos

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

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  Last modified May 18, 2014