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(featured image comes from the world resources institute, go to the link for background and explanation, here is a short cut to a full size image)
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
Sipping from the Internet Firehose…
November 24, 2013
- Chuckles, COP19: The Deal, REDD+, The Negotiations, Daily Reports
- GCP, CCPI, CGD, Heede, Cowtan & Way , Potash, Energiewende
- Bottom Line, Subsidies, Big Banks, Pricing Nature, Crap Detector, Cook
- Fukushima: Note, News
- Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
- Food: Crisis, Fisheries, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production
- Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Forecasts, Extreme Weather
- GHGs, Aerosols, Volcanoes, Weather Machine, ENSO, Temperatures
- Proxies, Satellites Paleoclimate, Risk, Attribution, Oceans, Biosphere, Extinctions
- Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Smog & Health, Phenology, Tornadoes
- Wildfires, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Cities, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Restoration, Adaptation
- Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Science Orgs, Models, Free Science, Manabe
- International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Hormuz, South China Sea
- Resources, EU, Russia & Ukraine, FQD, Treaties, Misc., Security
- Law & Activism, Activism, Divestment, Polls, H2O Biz
- National Politics: Britain, Europe, Australia, Abbott, Carbon, MDBP, China, Japan, Africa, South America
- Canada, Lac-Mégantic, Elsipogtog , Warsaw, FQD, GHGs, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Quebec, Canadiana
- America, Keystone, Mayflower, Birth Control, Sequestration, Senate Rules, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts, BP Trial
- Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Corps, Oil Transportation, Biofuel
- Wind, Solar, Nukes, Grid, Utilities, Cars, Energy Storage
- Business, Insurance, Other Lists, Carbon Lobby, Greenwashing, Inaction, Misc., Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig
We are definitely back in the black humour zone:
- 2013/11/14: LA Times: (cartoon – Horsey) Typhoon Haiyan's havoc will not impress climate change deniers
- 2013/11/23: RealEconomics: Saturday toons
- 2013/11/23: SeppoNet: (cartoon – Seppo) Food water and wetlands cartoon
- 2013/11/20: OtherWords: (cartoon – Bendib) Genetically Engineered Truth
- 2013/11/20: QuarkSoup: Cartoon: Budget Squeeze for 2 C
- 2013/11/19: uComics: (cartoon – Auth) Unfunny Inactivity
- 2013/11/16: TruthDig: (cartoon – Day) The Philippines
COP19 finished up this week inWarsaw. First the deal:
- 2013/11/24: NatureNB: UN climate talks conclude with a whimper, and a new forest policy
- 2013/11/24: DeutscheWelle: Warsaw climate talks end with compromise
- 2013/11/24: HindustanTimes: Warsaw delivers agreement on climate change talks
- 2013/11/24: GlobalPost: Key points of the Warsaw consensus
- 2013/11/24: QuarkSoup: Deals at Climate Meeting Advance Global Effort – NYTimes.com
- 2013/11/24: RNE: Climate talks find agreement, pressure rises on Abbott
- 2013/11/24: Xinhuanet: UN climate talks agree on principles for new global climate pact
- 2013/11/24: Xinhuanet: Results of UN climate talks not satisfying, but acceptable: Chinese official
- 2013/11/24: Xinhuanet: Interview: UN climate talks result acceptable but not satisfying: China delegation chief, Xie Zhenhua
- 2013/11/24: ABC(Au): Warsaw climate talks: Principles of global deal agreed on after deadlock over 'contributions'
- 2013/11/23: al Jazeera: Deadlock broken at UN climate talks
Negotiators reach consensus on some cornerstones of pact to be signed in 2015 which is aimed at slowing global warming.
- 2013/11/23: CBC: UN climate change deal breaks deadlock
- 2013/11/23: Guardian(UK): Warsaw climate talks set to reach deal to agree targets on emissions cuts
Developing countries bitterly opposed to signing up to same timetable as long-industrialised countries
- 2013/11/23: NYT: Deals at Climate Meeting Advance Global Effort
- 2013/11/23: UN: Ban welcomes deal at UN-led climate change talks as step towards 2015 treaty
- 2013/11/23: UCSUSA:B: Warsaw Talks Provide Just Enough to Move Process Forward on Path to Paris
Successes with REDD+ and Technology Mechanism Cannot be Discounted
- 2013/11/23: RTCC: UN agrees on framework for 2015 climate change deal
UN efforts to develop a global emissions reduction treaty by 2015 remain on course after countries agreed on a roadmap at talks in Warsaw.
- 2013/11/23: BBerg: UN Envoys Endorse First Steps Toward Next Global Warming Treaty
- 2013/11/23: UCSUSA:B: Negotiators Salvage Climate Framework At Last Minute
- 2013/11/23: WaPo: Compromise breaks deadlock at UN climate talks – contributions rather than commitments
One concrete item coming out ofCOP19in Warsaw was a REDD+ funding plan:
- 2013/11/22: BBC: 'Signature' achievement on forests at UN climate talks [REDD+]
- 2013/11/22: UCSUSA:B: [$290 million] REDD+ Funding Announcement Indicates Some Progress — Negotiators Must Continue Working to Create Permanent Financing
- 2013/11/22: Reuters: U.N. agrees multi-billion dollar [REDD+] framework to tackle deforestation
- 2013/11/22: EurActiv: E208m [REDD+] forests initiative launched at UN climate talks in Warsaw
A new $280m (E208m) initiative to help save the world's remaining forests was launched by the UK, the US and Norway at the United Nations climate change talks in Warsaw on Wednesday.
- 2013/11/20: TP:JR: Scary Interactive Map Shows Reason For Norway, U.K., And U.S. Announcement On Deforestation Fund
- 2013/11/20: RTCC: Norway, USA & UK pledge $280 million to combat deforestation
Finally COP19in Warsaw – the negotiations:
- 2013/11/24: RNE: Reality check on renewable energy could unblock climate talks
- 2013/11/24: Xinhuanet: 2013 UN climate talks end in Poland [pix]
- 2013/11/23: DD: 3 countries that are bailing on climate action
- 2013/11/23: RTCC: UN climate talks head for conclusion amid bitter divisions
Polish Presidency calls for final meeting to start as tensions rise between developed and developing nations Exhausted negotiating teams are attempting to pull together an agreement at UN climate talks in Warsaw, nearly 24 hours after the meeting was set to close.
- 2013/11/23: RTCC: UN climate talks in deadlock over weak finance pledges
- 2013/11/23: RTCC: Yeb Sano: 'set aside narrow interests for good of humanity'
(Note the BBC is up to their olde reuse URLs trix.)
- 2013/11/23: BBC: Last-minute deal saves fractious UN climate talks
UN climate talks in Poland have ended with delegates reaching a compromise on how to fight global warming. After 30 hours of deadlock, they approved a pathway to a new global climate treaty in Paris in 2015. The agreement was achieved after a series of last minute compromises often involving single words in draft texts. Negotiators also made progress on the contentious issue of loss and damage that developing countries are expected to suffer in a warming world. Green groups were angry about the lack of specific commitments on finance.
- 2013/11/23: BBC: UN talks on climate change taking place in Warsaw have been extended as delegates remain deadlocked on key issues
- 2013/11/23: al Jazeera: Climate summit in overtime due to deadlock
Delegates from more than 190 nations, meeting in Warsaw, argue on outline of new global pact to tackle climate change.
- 2013/11/23: al Jazeera: From the front line of climate change to negotiators in Warsaw
As the summit on climate change draws to a close, pleas continue for wealthier nations to 'do their moral duty'.
- 2013/11/23: BBerg: China, India Reject Durban Platform Text at UN Climate Talks
China and India said they wanted to see revisions to one of the key texts outlining the conclusions of the United Nations climate talks, a move that may unravel an agreement at the conference in Warsaw. Envoys from the two countries rejected the use of the word "commitments" to greenhouse gas emissions limits without distinguishing between developed and developing nations. They also sought a specific promise from rich nations on how they will reach a pledge to boost climate aid to $100 billion a year by 2020, saying $70 billion by 2016 would be appropriate. Their concerns added to a log-jam at the meeting involving about 190 nations, which bogged down with a rift between richer and poorer nations about who is to blame for global warming and who should move first to fix it.
- 2013/11/23: BBerg: UN Climate Talks Enter Overtime Amid Clash on Finance
- 2013/11/22: RTCC: Row over 2015 UN climate treaty slows progress at Warsaw summit
- 2013/11/22: BBC: Hope for climate talks' final hours
- 2013/11/22: TheCanadian: Global Greens React to Ongoing COP 19 Negotiations
- 2013/11/22: Guardian(UK): Warsaw climate change talks falter as EU and developing countries clash
- 2013/11/22: Guardian(UK): Warsaw climate talks – final day live blog
- 2013/11/22: Guardian(UK): US backs timetable for global climate deal at Warsaw talks
- 2013/11/22: TP:JR: Dispatches From Warsaw: All-Nighter Ahead As Countries Work Toward Climate Agreement
- 2013/11/22: CCurrents: Storm Brews At U.N. Climate Talks
- 2013/11/22: OilChange: Time to Learn from Tobacco
- 2013/11/22: RNE: Environment groups walk out of Warsaw climate talks
- 2013/11/22: RNE: Australia accused of climate change denial at Warsaw talks
- 2013/11/22: IndiaTimes: Activists walk out of UN climate talks
- 2013/11/22: EUO: NGOs walk out of climate talks in Warsaw
- 2013/11/22: SMH: Governments ignore own climate crisis warnings at Warsaw talks
Governments are shying away from their own warnings that the world has only a fast-shrinking budget of carbon emissions left to use to avoid damaging global warming, frightened off at U.N. climate talks by the radical cuts it would require.
- 2013/11/22: Google:AFP: Deep divisions as climate talks enter final stretch
- 2013/11/22: RTCC: Warsaw climate talks: final day live blog
- 2013/11/22: DemNow: As Environmentalists Walk Out of UN Talks, Top US Envoy Says No to Reparations for Climate Damage
- 2013/11/22: DemNow: "You've Made a Wager of Our Future": Somali Youth Activist Pleads to U.N. Summit for Climate Action
- 2013/11/22: DemNow: "We Can't Take Crumbs from the High Table": Global Activists Hold Their Own Climate Justice Summit
- 2013/11/22: DemNow: "Africa Is Being Pushed Closer to the Fire": Africans Say Continent Can't Wait for Climate Action
- 2013/11/21: DemNow: "Nature Does Not Negotiate": Environmentalists Walk Out of U.N. Climate Summit in Warsaw
- 2013/11/21: DemNow: "Polluters Talk, We Walk": Civil Society Groups Abandon Warsaw Talks over Inaction on Global Warming
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Marshall Islands hits out at Australia and Japan over carbon target cuts
- 2013/11/21: BBC: Environmental campaigners walked out en-masse from climate talks here in Warsaw saying they felt no progress was possible.
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): UN climate change conference: all the major players – in pictures
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Green groups walk out of UN climate talks
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Warsaw climate talks: the world's poorest cannot wait for a 2015 deal
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Warsaw climate change conference: polluting corporations welcome
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Hosts Poland accused of endangering world climate talks timetable
- 2013/11/21: CCurrents: Corporate Lobbyists Flood Warsaw Climate Talks
- 2013/11/21: CCurrents: 133 Countries Walk Out Of Warsaw Climate Crisis Meet Over Compensation Row
- 2013/11/21: PLNA: Green Organizations and Civil Society Walk Out of COP 19
- 2013/11/21: FergusB: The COP-out; what a catalyst you turned out to be…
- 2013/11/21: RTCC: Polish COP19 Presidency accused of putting coal over climate
- 2013/11/21: Reuters: Ban Ki-moon seeks bold climate pledges at 2014 summit; not a deadline
- 2013/11/21: CCentral: Warsaw Talks Ignore IPCC 'Carbon Budget' Approach
- 2013/11/21: UCSUSA:B: Some NGOs Walk Out Of Warsaw Climate Negotiations
- 2013/11/21: DD: Big green groups walk out of U.N. climate talks…
- 2013/11/21: TP:JR: Dispatches From Warsaw: New Partnership Between Governments And Industry To Reduce Methane
- 2013/11/21: TP:JR: Hundreds Stage A Walkout At The U.N. Climate Talks In Warsaw: "Enough Is Enough"
- 2013/11/21: RNE: Five issues to watch at Warsaw 'construction COP'
- 2013/11/21: BBerg: India Rejects U.S. Plan to Use Ozone Treaty to Cut HFCs
India opposed using the Montreal Protocol ozone-protection treaty to restrict powerful greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons, pouring cold water on efforts by the U.S. and the European Union.
- 2013/11/21: Grist: At U.N. climate talks in Warsaw, hunger games get serious
- 2013/11/21: RTCC: NGOs walk out of UN climate talks in protest at lack of progress
- 2013/11/21: RTCC: Fossil fuel lobbying at UN climate talks 'harmful' say NGOs
COP19 has been heralded as the most corporate captured climate talks ever; an army of industry lobbyists and business-affiliated side events; corporate "partners" that include fossil fuel companies and other big polluters; an official business day at the Pre-COP; and, the Polish government hosts teaming up with the World Coal Association.
- 2013/11/21: RTCC: Poland's coal unions protest outside UN climate summit
Poland's mining branch of the Solidarnos'c' trade union yesterday staged protests against UN climate talks next to the conference vicinity National Stadium in Warsaw.
- 2013/11/21: DeSmogBlog: Environment Groups Walk Out Of Warsaw COP19 Climate Change Talks
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Britain joins US in ending coal power support overseas
The UK has joined the US in pledging that no tax-payer funds will go to overseas coal-fired power station developments.
- 2013/11/21: DeSmogBlog: Greenpeace Leader Kumi Naidoo's COP19 Walkout Message For Governments "Playing Political Poker" With Planet's Future
- 2013/11/21: DeSmogBlog: CFACT Makes Holocaust Reference About UN Climate Process In Poland
- 2013/11/21: EurActiv: Polish 'bad COP' feared after ministerial sacking
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's sacking of the country's environment minister Marcin Korolec yesterday (20 November) has been greeted with dismay and suspicion among EU policymakers.
- 2013/11/21: UN: At climate change talks, Ban stresses major role of cities in mitigating impact
- 2013/11/21: RNE: Australia reputation hits new low over t-shirt climate diplomacy
- 2013/11/21: Asia Times: Climate change talks hit by walkout protest
- 2013/11/20: DemNow: As Poor Countries Walk Out of Climate Talks, Venezuela Calls on Industrial Nations to Take Action
- 2013/11/20: DemNow: U.N. Defends Banning Three Youth Activists While Allowing Fossil Fuel Firms to Sponsor Climate Talks
- 2013/11/20: DemNow: "Finance Climate Action, Not Fossil Fuel Subsidies": Activists Blast Priorities of Biggest Polluters
- 2013/11/20: DemNow: Filipina Climate Chief: "It Feels Like We Are Negotiating on Who Is To Live and Who Is To Die"
- 2013/11/20: DemNow: After Global Failure to Cut Emissions, Will Poor Nations Get Help to Deal With Climate Change?
- 2013/11/20: ERabett: The Poor Spit Back on the Rich [COP19]
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): $280m forests initiative launched at UN climate talks in Warsaw
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Climate talks: Polish environment minister sacked to accelerate shale gas operations
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): An international deal on climate change is within our reach by Nicholas Stern & Christiana Figueres
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Warsaw's widening climate chasm could lead to 4C warming
- 2013/11/20: PLNA: India: Rich Nations Most Responsible for Countering Climate Change
- 2013/11/20: PLNA: Unexpected Removal of Polish Minister Leading Climate Summit
- 2013/11/20: DbP: COP 19 Warsaw: interview with Filipino negotiator Yeb Saño: leaked doc shows U.S. concern about 'blame and liability'
- 2013/11/20: BBC: Ban Ki Moon gets on his bike at climate talks as Polish minister axed
- 2013/11/20: RTCC: Divide between rich and poor at UN climate talks as wide as ever
- 2013/11/20: TP:JR: Dispatches From Warsaw: U.K. To End Finance Of Coal Projects Overseas
- 2013/11/20: OilChange: A Call for Reason in Warsaw: Finance Climate Action, not Fossil Fuel Subsidies
- 2013/11/20: RNE: Climate denial group congratulates Australia during Warsaw talks
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Poor countries walk out of UN climate talks as compensation row rumbles on
Bloc of 132 countries exit Warsaw conference after rich nations refuse to discuss climate change recompense until after 2015
- 2013/11/20: TMoS: That Tears It Then – The Little Countries Storm Out En Masse
- 2013/11/20: UN: Climate finance is essential to addressing climate change, Ban tells ministers in Warsaw
- 2013/11/20: DD: 132 countries exit Warsaw climate conference after rich nations refuse to discuss loss and damage recompense until after 2015
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): Scientists slam industry over 'efficient coal' claims [COP19]
- 2013/11/20: RTCC: Polish govt sacks COP19 chief Korolec as Environment Minister
Poland's Government surprised envoys attending UN climate talks by sacking the summit's President Marcin Korolec from his role as Minister of Environment.
- 2013/11/20: RTCC: Developing nations blame Australia for loss and damage talks 'walkout'
- 2013/11/19: AlterNet: Leaked Memo Reveals U.S. Plan to Oppose Helping Poor Nations Adapt to Climate Change
- 2013/11/19: Resilience: Warsaw: En Plein Air
- 2013/11/19: BBC: UN climate negotiations are bogged down in a dispute over who will take legal responsibility for the loss and damage caused by climate change
- 2013/11/19: TMoS: Climate Change Bad Boys Tough It Out in Warsaw
The Warsaw climate change summit may go into the books as the moment when the prosperous, industrialized nations turned their backs on the rest of the world. We're not gloating about it but we're not even slightly repentant about it either.
- 2013/11/19: DeSmogBlog: Climate Denial Group CFACT Congratulates Australia During Warsaw Talks
- 2013/11/19: CPunch: The Retreat from Obligation — Climate Change Saboteurs
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): UN climate talks in Warsaw: what you need to know
The aim is to forge a legally binding global climate treaty in Poland to cut carbon emissions. But it's easier said than done
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): Yeb Sano surfaces at UN climate talks and thanks supporters of fast
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): Climate talks: wealthy countries urged to foot bill for weather-related disasters
Developing countries threaten to walk out of UN talks in Warsaw over failure to reach agreement on financial recompense
- 2013/11/19: DerSpiegel: Climate Conference: Doubts Emerge Over Germany's Leadership
Renewable energy experts worry that support will fade for climate-related policies in Berlin with the inauguration of the planned new grand coalition government. The UN climate conference and NGOs are responding with pressure on Germany to send a signal that the country is still a leader.
- 2013/11/19: CDreams: At COP19, Corporations Welcome, Climate Justice Advocates Not
- 2013/11/19: MoJo: 3 Countries That Are Bailing on Climate Action
- 2013/11/19: DemNow: On Day 9 of Fast, Filipino Climate Chief Yeb Saño Demands Rich Nations Pay Up for Global Pollution
- 2013/11/19: DemNow: "Civil Society Isn't Welcome & Corporations Are": Youth Activist on Being Banned from Climate Talks
- 2013/11/19: DemNow: Leaked Memo Reveals U.S. Plan to Oppose Helping Poor Nations Adapt to Climate Change
- 2013/11/19: CCurrents: Coal Tries To Clean Up Its Image
- 2013/11/19: Grist: Coal industry tries to crash Warsaw climate talks, gets spanked
- 2013/11/19: Grist: Want a climate deal? Rich nations will have to pay up to help poor ones
- 2013/11/19: Reuters: Ban says people feel 'planet's wrath' over warming
Ban says world faces a "steep climb" to reach a 2015 climate deal – Current climate pledges inadequate – U.N. Secretary-General
- 2013/11/19: TP:JR: Dispatches From Warsaw: U.N. Leadership Issues Firm Call To Action On Climate Change
- 2013/11/19: UN: In Warsaw, Ban urges climate negotiators to 'rise to the challenge,' reach global deal
- 2013/11/19: TheConversation: Australia and Canada are leading the wreckers at Warsaw
- 2013/11/19: RTCC: Finance central to UN climate talks, as UK calls for more pledges
- 2013/11/19: BBC: The strange tale of two fuels
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): Climate talks, coal and the pink lungs of Warsaw
- 2013/11/18: DemNow: Global Voices from Africa to the Philippines Demand Climate Justice at U.N. Summit in Warsaw
- 2013/11/18: DemNow: Partnering With Polluters? U.N. Climate Summit Criticized for Sponsorships by Fossil Fuel Companies
- 2013/11/18: DemNow: 2 Months After Russia's Jailing of Arctic 30, Greenpeace Urges Their Release at Warsaw Summit
- 2013/11/18: DemNow: After Typhoon Haiyan's Devastation, Filipino Calls for Climate Action Take On New Urgency
- 2013/11/18: DemNow: Polish Gov't Draws Heat for Embracing Dirty Coal as it Hosts U.N. Climate Summit
- 2013/11/18: UN: Typhoon Haiyan wake-up call to speed up climate control efforts – Ban
- 2013/11/18: WMO: WMO at the Warsaw Climate Change Conference
- 2013/11/18: TP:JR: Dispatches From Warsaw: Controversial Issues Threaten To Derail Global Climate Talks
- 2013/11/18: Grist: U.N. climate talks: Four countries behaving badly
- 2013/11/18: RTCC: UN proposes roadmap to 2015 climate change deal
- 2013/11/18: IndiaTimes: [Poor nations'] Negotiators pinning hopes on rich nations' bounty at climate talks
- 2013/11/18: CSM: UN climate chief gives coal CEOs verbal smackdown
- 2013/11/18: CDreams: 'Who Rules the World? Fossil Fuel Industry or the People?' — Global coal conference targeted by climate activists in Warsaw
- 2013/11/18: QuarkSoup: In Diplomacy, No Questioning Manmade Climate Change
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Poland as a venue for UN climate talks? Odd choice, say poor countries
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Leave coal in the ground to avoid climate catastrophe, UN [Christina Figueres] tells industry
- 2013/11/18: TMoS: The Vandal in Chief Worries About Climate Change [COP19]
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Typhoon Haiyan should spur climate change action
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Climate change crisis fund to assist poor countries almost empty
Dismay among developing countries as richer counterparts fail to make further pledges to Green Climate Fund at Warsaw talks
- 2013/11/18: IPS: Coal Tries to Clean Up Its Image
- 2013/11/18: RTCC: China 'unsure if progress is possible' at UN climate summit
- 2013/11/18: RTCC: Figueres tells coal: leave most existing reserves in the ground
Full speech by UN climate chief Christiana Figueres to World Climate and Coal summit in Warsaw
- 2013/11/18: RTCC: Coal industry must face 'climate reality', warns UN chief
Most coal reserves must be left in the ground, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres told industry leaders today, if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change.
- 2013/11/18: DeSmogBlog: International Coal and Climate Summit Hears Tough Love from UNFCCC Head As Protests Highlight Poland's Coal Addiction
- 2013/11/18: OilChange: Coal Industry Told to Leave Reserves in the Ground
- 2013/11/18: RNE: Fossil fuels and Pole dancing at Warsaw climate talks
- 2013/11/17: Guardian(UK): Climate change pledges: rich nations face fury over moves to renege
- 2013/11/17: RealEconomics: The Warsaw conference on climate change
- 2013/11/17: BBC: Coal fires green anger at UN climate talks
Environmental groups have sharply criticised the Polish government for hosting a coal industry meeting while UN climate talks are held in the country.
- 2013/11/17: CCurrents: Concerns Over Role Of Corporations At Climate Crisis Talks
- 2013/11/17: CCurrents: US Fights G77 On Most counts At Climate Crisis Talks, Shows Leaked Document
- 2013/11/17: Reuters: U.N. talks on new carbon markets break down
International negotiations on how to set up new carbon markets to cut greenhouse gas levels broke down over the weekend in Warsaw, sources said, after developing nations refused to progress the issue before rich nations increase efforts to cut their own emissions.
- 2013/11/17: CEPR:BtP: Todd Stern, President Obama's Special Envoy on Climate Change, Says U.S. Can Take Lives and Destroy Property in Developing World With Impunity
COP19 – Daily Reports:
- 2013/11/22: IISD: Warsaw Highlights – Thursday, 21 November 2013
- 2013/11/21: IISD: Warsaw Highlights – Wednesday, 20 November 2013
- 2013/11/20: IISD: Warsaw Highlights – Tuesday, 19 November 2013
- 2013/11/19: IISD: Warsaw Highlights – Monday, 18 November 2013
- 2013/11/18: IISD: Warsaw Highlights – Saturday, 16 November 2013
The Global Carbon Project released their carbon emissions report this week:
- 2013/11/19: GCP: Global Carbon Budget – Media Summary Highlights (compact)
- 2013/11/19: GCP: Global Carbon Budget
- 2013/11/20: RNE: Global carbon emissions set to reach new high [GCP]
- 2013/11/20: CCurrents: Global Carbon Emissions Set To Reach Record 36 Billion Tons In 2013
- 2013/11/19: TheConversation: Carbon emissions still growing when they must fall:[GCP] report
- 2013/11/19: ABC(Au): CO2 emission increase driven by China, coal
- 2013/11/19: OilChange: CO2 Emissions Reach Record Levels
- 2013/11/18: Eureka: Global carbon emissions set to reach record 36 billion tonnes in 2013 [GCP]
GermanWatch released their 2014 Climate Change Performance Index report this week:
- 2013/11/18: GermanWatch: [link to 3.5 meg pdf] CCPI – The Climate Change Performance Index 2014 — A comparison of the 58 top CO2 emitting nations
- 2013/11/20: Grist: Super Euros: Top 10 climate-change-fighting countries are all in Europe
- 2013/11/20: Lenz: Japan's Performance "Very Poor" in the 2014 Climate Change Performance Index
- 2013/11/20: Lenz: Germany's Performance Way Down to "Moderate" in the 2014 Climate Change Performance Index
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Australia slides down to bottom on climate change performance index
- 2013/11/18: TMoS: Speaking of Vandals, We're Number – Last
The Centre for Global Development put out a scorecard this week:
- 2013/11/18: CGDev: Commitment to Development Index 2013
- 2013/11/20: MoJo: US Ranks 43rd in the World on Climate Policy (and Canada is Even Worse)
- 2013/11/20: CP24: Canada ranks worst on climate policy among industrialized countries: [CGD] report
- 2013/11/18: G&M: Canada dead last in ranking for environmental protection
Canada has fallen behind in a global ranking on international development initiatives and ranks last when it comes to environmental protection.
The 90 companies gambit by Heede is likely to raise a ruckus:
- 2013/11/22: Springer:CC: Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers, 1854-2010 by Richard Heede
- 2013/11/22: TPL: Carbon Majors, Finger Pointing and Responsibility
- 2013/11/22: P3: Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions
- 2013/11/22: CNajors: New Study Traces Two-Thirds of Industrial Emissions to Just 90 Institutions
- 2013/11/22: RNE: Graph of the Day: Major industrial carbon producers [90 cos]
- 2013/11/21: UCSUSA:B: Who Is Responsible for Climate Change? New Study Identifies the Top 90 Producers of Industrial Carbon Emissions
- 2013/11/21: WCEL: Who is responsible for climate change?
There is still a lot of talk about that Cowtan and Way paper:
- 2013/11/21: QuarkSoup: UK Politicians Grapple With Cowtan and Way
- 2013/11/20: Moyhu: Pausebusting NOAA
- 2013/11/19: TFTJO: Requiem for a Meme: Global Warming has NOT stopped
- 2013/11/19: Moyhu: Seasonal trends for infilled HADCRUT
- 2013/11/19: KSJT: Guardian, Independent: Think global warming has paused? New report says look way, way north & think again. [C&W / media]
- 2013/11/19: SkS: Global Warming Paws Fails to Materialise: Earth Still Warming and Global Sea Level Rising Like Gangbusters by Rob Painting
- 2013/11/18: MediaMatters: Faux Pause: Media Ignore Study Finding Globe Is Warming Twice As Fast As Thought
- 2013/11/18: Stoat: Data Canny Wow (anag.)
- 2013/11/18: Moyhu: Coverage, Hadcrut 4 and trends
The Potash fandango plays on:
- 2013/11/22: RT: End of potash war? Prokhorov buys Kerimov's stake for $4.35 bn
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's investment arm ONEXIM has bought Suleiman Kerimov's 21.75 percent stake in Uralkali, which could bring an end to the Russia-Belarus 'potash war' and the release of the company's CEO being held hostage in Minsk.
- 2013/11/18: BBerg: Prokhorov Said to Agree to Buy Kerimov's Uralkali Stake
Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group reached an agreement with Suleiman Kerimov and his partners to buy their 33 percent stake in potash producer OAO Uralkali, three people with knowledge of situation said. The deal values the world's largest producer of the soil nutrient at about $20 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified before an official statement. The stake held by Kerimov and his partners has a market value of about $5.2 billion. OAO Uralchem owner Dmitry Mazepin may join Onexim as a partner in the deal, two of the people said. A sale may defuse a dispute between Russia and Belarus sparked by Uralkali's July withdrawal from a partnership that marketed 40 percent of global potash exports. The falling-out and Uralkali's plan to boost production roiled the $20 billion market for the soil nutrient. Belarus has called for a change in the company's ownership before a reconciliation is possible.
How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?
- 2013/11/23: PSinclair: Welcome to EnergieWende: Part 3, Passive House Hi-Rise Retrofit
- 2013/11/22: CleanTechnica: Welcome To The Energiewende — The Movie
- 2013/11/21: WSWS: German energy firm RWE to cut 6,700 jobs
The company's management has justified its attacks on jobs and working conditions by pointing to the decline of profits in coal and gas energy, due to the German government's subsidies for renewable energy. Operational profits from conventional energy production dropped by two thirds in the first nine months of the year to E841 million. The firm said that this was attributable to the fall in the price of electricity as a result of the surplus of power plants in Europe and government subsidies for solar and wind power.
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2013/11/21: RealEconomics: Paying for climate change
- 2013/11/20: BBerg: Coal Seen as New Tobacco Sparking Investor Backlash: Commodities
- 2013/11/20: Grist: Climate debt collectors: Occupy wants the 1% to pay up
- 2013/11/20: RealEconomics: The costs of extreme weather
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Investors demand oil, coal and power companies assess climate change risks
- 2013/11/19: TP:JR: Invest, Divest: Renewable Investment To Hit $630 Billion A Year In 2030, Fossil Fuel Stocks At Risk Today
- 2013/11/19: EurActiv: Losses from extreme weather rise to $200 bn a year: World Bank
Who's getting the subsidies?
- 2013/11/21: TP:JR: Developed Countries Spent $35 Billion On International Coal Plants From 2007 to 2012
- 2013/11/20: DeSmogBlog: Dirty Energy Subsidies Still 5x More Than Pledged Climate Aid, Activists Ask #WTF?
What are the big banks up to?
- 2013/11/21: EurActiv: Report: Illegally produced palm oil is financed by European banks
Biofuels giants Bumitama and Wilmar have knowingly traded illegally-extracted palm oil from plantations that encroach on and threaten orangutan habitats, says a report released today (21 November). European banks are amongst the firms' biggest investors.
So, If we put a price on nature, will it deal with externalities and lead to greater conservation
or will it lead to greater exploitation or what?
- 2013/11/20: BBC: Edinburgh forum says putting value on nature could save it
Business leaders and environmentalists say putting an economic value on nature could be the best way to save it. Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond will make the call at the first World Forum on Natural Capital in Edinburgh on Thursday. The event has been organised by the Scottish Wildlife Trust in partnership with the UN and other organisations.
Here is something for your Crap Detector:
- 2013/11/20: NatureN: Policy: Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2013/11/23: SkS: Carbon Emissions on Tragic Trajectory by Stephen Leahy, John Hartz
- 2013/11/23: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #47B by John Hartz
- 2013/11/22: SkS: Global warming and oceans, a 21st century perspective by John Abraham
[Book Review] _Ocean Circulation and Climate, Volume 103, Second Edition: A 21st century perspective_ by Gerold Siedler (Editor), Stephen M. Griffies (Editor), John Gould (Editor), John A. Church (Editor)
- 2013/11/22: SkS: 2013 SkS News Bulletin #17: Cowtan and Way (2013) by John Hartz
- 2013/11/21: SkS: Skeptical Science at the 2013 AGU Fall meeting
- 2013/11/21: SkS: Croatian translation of The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism by BaerbelW
- 2013/11/20: SkS: Will extreme weather like super typhoon Haiyan become the new norm? by dana1981
- 2013/11/19: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #47A by John Hartz
- 2013/11/19: SkS: Global Warming Paws Fails to Materialise: Earth Still Warming and Global Sea Level Rising Like Gangbusters by Rob Painting
- 2013/11/18: SkS: Broad consensus on climate change across American states
- 2013/11/17: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly Digest #46 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.
It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
Do they have an agenda?
Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
Do they want to write a good news story?
Do they want to write a bad news story?
Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?
Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:
- 2013/11/23: CleanTechnica: TEPCO President: Fukushima Was "A Warning To The World"
- 2013/11/22: GLaden: Removing the fuel rods at Fukushima: Video
- 2013/11/22: EneNews: Tepco Adviser: Wait until Alaska salmon is found with Fukushima contamination, it's only a matter of time…
- 2013/11/21: EneNews: Nuclear Engineer: Every expert I talked to this week is very concerned about a criticality event during fuel removal at Unit 4…
- 2013/11/21: CleanTechnica: TEPCO Relocating Nuclear Fuel At Fukushima Reactor Unit 4
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): TEPCO clean-up boss says Fukushima's radioactive water will be dumped into Pacific Ocean
The man in charge of the clean-up at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant says growing stores of contaminated water from the site will eventually have to be dumped into the sea. In an exclusive interview with the ABC, the chairman of the Fukushima Monitoring Committee, Dale Klein, has also admitted there are likely to be more blunders and slip-ups at the plant in the months and years to come. "I think the best word to use with Fukushima is challenging," the former chief nuclear watchdog in the US said.
- 2013/11/20: EneNews: AP: Melted Fukushima fuel is 12 inches from entering ground after eating through concrete, says simulation — Study: Molten core suspected of eroding through concrete foundation – Gov't Expert: We just can't be sure until actually seeing inside
- 2013/11/19: EneNews: Fukushima Reactor Designer: I doubt plant can be decommissioned, perhaps enclose it in cement – Nuclear Professor: Solution is to pour concrete all over, but now it's too late (video)
- 2013/11/19: EneNews: TV: Work at Fukushima plant to go on for 10,000 years? Nuclear Expert: "It's longer than human history" (video)
- 2013/11/19: TruthOut: "Chernobyl Was Transparent Compared to Fukushima": Harvey Wasserman on Ongoing Crisis
- 2013/11/19: CPunch: A Global Threat — Fukushima Fallout Damaged the Thyroids of California Babies
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): Fukushima nuclear disaster is warning to the world, says power company boss
UK government must learn from Japan's catastrophe as it plans a new generation of plant, [TEPCO president, Naomi Hirose] claims
- 2013/11/19: PLNA: Fuel Removal Process Starts at Fukushima Nuclear Plant
- 2013/11/19: CBC: Fukushima's crippled reactors: the risky plan to move fuel rods
World watching extremely delicate operation by TEPCO utility with checkered track record
- 2013/11/18: MStrassler: The Mess at Fukushima, and The Need for a Scientific Lens
- 2013/11/18: CNN: Operators begin hazardous fuel removal process at Fukushima nuclear plant
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): Japan: Fukushima operator TEPCO starts dangerous fuel rod removal at nuclear power plant
- 2013/11/18: Reuters: Operator at Japan's Fukushima starts hazardous year-long fuel removal
- 2013/11/18: EneNews: NHK: Fuel removal at Unit 4 underway
BBC: Concern casks not watertight, rods would contact air
WSJ: Exposure to air can cause sustained nuclear reaction
AFP: Tokyo evacuations if uncontrolled nuclear conflagration
AP: Rods contain plutonium, experts concerned quake to hit during process
- 2013/11/18: BBC: Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant begins fuel rod removal
- 2013/11/18: Asia Times: TEPCO risks all at Fukushima
On Monday, by far the most dangerous nuclear operation attempted in human history was set to begin in the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, the removal of more than 1,300 spent fuel rods and some 200 unused rods from a reservoir on top of Unit 4.
- 2013/11/18: BBerg: Tepco Successfully Removes First Nuclear Fuel Rods at Fukushima
- 2013/11/17: EneNews: Former Tepco Engineer: Fukushima meltdown was ignited by quake, not tsunami; Serious damage caused reactor to lose coolant – Lies will likely be exposed before long…
- 2013/11/13: Cryptome: Fukushima Daiichi NPP Unit 4 Spent Fuel Pool
The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:
- 2013/11/22: UBuffalo: Greenland's shrunken ice sheet: We've been here before
Clues in the Arctic fossil record suggest that 3-5,000 years ago, the ice sheet was the smallest it has been in the past 10,000 years
- 2013/11/19: CBC: Missing sea ice data found in crusty Canadian algae — Sea ice has declined dramatically over the past 150 years
- 2013/11/19: HotWhopper: Last century, the Arctic had the lowest sea ice in the past 646 years
- 2013/11/18: Eureka: Underwater 'tree rings' — Calcite crusts of arctic algae record 650 years of sea ice change
As for the charismatic megafauna:
- 2013/11/19: CBC: Churchill polar bear cam shares 'amazing' live footage
That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:
- 2013/11/21: ArcticNews: High Methane Levels all over Arctic Ocean
- 2013/11/19: ArcticNews: Arctic Methane Release and Rapid Temperature Rise are interlinked
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2013/11/22: TP:JR: The Arctic Is Melting, So The U.S. Military Has Another Place It Has To Defend
- 2013/11/22: FuelFix: US eyes increase in Arctic operations
- 2013/11/20: Asia Times: East Asia's future maritime highway
While in Antarctica:
- 2013/11/20: NSF: Early-career investigator discovers current volcanic activity under West Antarctica
Seismic "swarms" indicate active magma moving below [WAIS] critical area of Antarctica's ice sheet
- 2013/11/19: FuturePundit: Volcano Forming In Antarctica Under 1 Kilometer Of Ice
- 2013/11/19: MODIS: Iceberg calving from Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica [on Nov.8]
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): Could volcanoes be driving Antarctic ice loss?
- 2013/11/17: SciNow: Magma Boils Beneath Antarctic Ice
- 2013/11/17: Eureka: Volcano discovered smoldering under a kilometer of ice in West Antarctica
- 2013/11/18: RT: Volcanoes still active under Antarctic ice, study confirms
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2013/11/23: CBC: Food waste, overeating threaten global security
- 2013/11/22: EurActiv: African farmers face soil erosion, fertiliser puzzle
Every year the world loses roughly 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil, with chemical fertilisers singled out as one of the main culprits. Yet, agriculture experts are calling for more widespread use of the substances to improve land fertility and boost yields.
- 2013/11/20: Xinhuanet: China forecasts minute rise in global crop output
- 2013/11/19: Yale360: How Industrial Agriculture Has Thwarted Factory Farm Reforms
In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Robert Martin, co-author of a recent study on industrial farm animal production, explains how a powerful and intransigent agriculture lobby has successfully fought off attempts to reduce the harmful environmental and health impacts of mass livestock production.
- 2013/11/18: BPA: Global Meat Production Trends
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): Freak storm wipes out wheat crop in WA mid west
The state of the world's fisheries is a concern. See also:
- 2013/11/20: EurActiv: Conservationists warn against tuna quota increase
Conservationists are warning against an "irresponsible" increase in bluefin tuna quotas, as members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas meet for talks in South Africa this week.
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): More cuts to abalone catch
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): Shire clears the way for barramundi farm on Lake Argyle
- 2013/11/17: CBC: Bluefin tuna quota demand slammed by environmentalists — Fishermen want to catch more of the lucrative fish
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2013/11/21: RT: Hawaii's Big Island bans biotech companies, GMO crops
- 2013/11/19: ConvEcon: The Safety of Bioengineered Crops
- 2013/11/19: Grist: Playing the field: Corn likes to sleep around — and that makes it hard to control GMOs
- 2013/11/18: Grist: Kauai plunges ahead with law targeting GMO farms
- 2013/11/18: CCP: Kauai Council Overrides Veto to Mandate Disclosure of Genetically Modified Crops
Kauai has a ground-breaking new law that mandates disclosure of pesticide use and the presence of genetically modified crops by agrochemical companies on the Hawaiian island, and establishes buffer zones between these operations and schools, hospitals and residential areas.
Regarding labelling GM food:
- 2013/11/18: TreeHugger: No surprise here: junk food lobby wants federal ban on GMO labels
And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?
- 2013/11/22: CSM: Grow Appalachia: a better food system for America
- 2013/11/20: EurActiv: Europe tries new recipe to combat hunger in Ethiopia
Learning from past crises, the European Commission has changed tack on its approach to food security in the Horn of Africa, focusing on resilience to droughts and supporting diversification in local farming production.
- 2013/11/20: BBC: Decision awaited on genetically modified insect [olive flies] trial
- 2013/11/18: EurActiv: Women to spearhead next 'Green Revolution'
Nearly one billion people suffer from chronic hunger worldwide. To sustainably feed a growing world population, the United Nations, farmers' organisations and numerous NGOs are calling for a new 'Green Revolution' that would empower small farmers — especially women.
- 2013/11/18: Grist: Small planet, big appetites: How to feed a growing world
The death count keeps edging upward in the Haiyan recovery:
- 2013/11/23: PLNA: Philippines Raises Official Death Toll From Typhoon Haiyan – 5,235 dead and 1,613 missing
- 2013/11/24: Xinhuanet: Chinese medical teams start treating patients in Philippines' typhoon-hit areas
- 2013/11/23: BBC: Typhoon Haiyan: UK sending six aid planes
More than 1,400 tents and other supplies are to be flown to the Philippines on six UK aid flights this week to help victims of Typhoon Haiyan. Four cities will also be given a total of £5m, taking the total amount of UK government aid to £55m.
- 2013/11/23: ABC(Au): Philippines typhoon death toll surpasses 5,200: government
- 2013/11/22: Xinhuanet: Philippine death toll from typhoon Haiyan climbs to 5,209
- 2013/11/22: BBC: Typhoon Haiyan death toll rises over 5,000
- 2013/11/22: TP:JR: Super Typhoon Haiyan Death Toll Tops 5,200, Rebuilding Cost Could Approach $6 Billion
- 2013/11/22: CNN: Report: Typhoon Haiyan death toll jumps to 5,209 in Philippines
- 2013/11/22: UN: UN raises emergency aid appeal for Philippines typhoon victims to $348 million
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Philippines disaster relief: diary from the frontline
In her first report, a Filipino aid worker of 15 years' experience describes challenges faced after typhoon Haiyan
- 2013/11/21: UN: UN emergency chief stresses need for long-term aid for Philippines typhoon victims
- 2013/11/21: Asia Times: Strategic opportunity in Philippine crisis
- 2013/11/21: Asia Times: Haiti mistakes loom over Haiyan relief
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Typhoon Haiyan: Field hospital medics seeing 'horrific injuries' in wake of Philippines storm
Australian medics working to treat desperate survivors of the Philippines typhoon have likened the aftermath of the fierce storm to Armageddon, and say they are seeing "horrific" injuries.
- 2013/11/21: WSWS: The US military and the Philippines
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Typhoon Haiyan: children in disaster zone are vulnerable, warns UNICEF
- 2013/11/20: NASA: Evidence of Destruction in Tacloban, Philippines
- 2013/11/20: AntiWar: Is the US Exploiting Typhoon Suffering to Win Military Bases in the Philippines?
- 2013/11/20: NatureN: Crowdsourcing goes mainstream in typhoon response
Relief agencies tapped online volunteers to map damage in stricken areas of the Philippines.
- 2013/11/20: UN: Typhoon Haiyan: UN agency donates satellite phones, laptops to Philippines relief effort
- 2013/11/20: CCP: Climate change and Haiyan: body bags don't stop the ghoulish arguments
- 2013/11/20: BBC: Typhoon Haiyan: China sends relief team to Philippines
- 2013/11/20: CBC: Mass burials may complicate Philippines Typhoon Haiyan recovery — Unmarked graves hinder identification, grieving process
- 2013/11/20: WSWS: US military build-up continues in Philippine disaster zone
- 2013/11/20: WSWS: "A howling wilderness" in Samar — US imperialism returns to the scene of a crime
- 2013/11/20: IOTD: Evidence of Destruction in Tacloban, Philippines [2004 vs 2013]
- 2013/11/20: DD: Philippines: 4.4 million people displaced by Typhoon Haiyan, including over 1 million children
- 2013/11/20: NatureN: Haiyan prompts risk research — Geologists, engineers and social scientists are poised to swoop in before reconstruction gets under way
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): UN raises relief supply concerns for [remote] Philippine islands hit by Typhoon Haiyan
- 2013/11/19: UN: UN ramps up aid for Typhoon-hit Philippines as Ban urges action now on climate change
- 2013/11/19: DerSpiegel: Unprepared: Government Failings Intensify Haiyan Aid Disaster
Typhoon Haiyan has left entire regions all but inaccessible in the Philippines, while the ensuing chaos has hampered the efforts of relief workers. A country hit by about 10 typhoons a year ought to be better prepared.
- 2013/11/19: Xinhuanet: Typhoon Haiyan death toll in Philippines climbs to 3,982
- 2013/11/19: IndiaTimes: Philippines typhoon rips bodies from graves
- 2013/11/19: IndiaTimes: Philippines says typhoon rebuilding cost may be up to $5.8 billion
- 2013/11/19: Asia Times: Typhoon aid slow to reach Philippines
- 2013/11/18: CBC: Philippines death toll tops 3,900, almost 2M homeless
Number of people displaced by catastrophe now estimated at 4 million, up from 900,000 last week
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): Philippine families hit by Typhoon Haiyan band together to survive [pix]
- 2013/11/18: WSWS: Philippine typhoon victims desperate for aid
- 2013/11/17: CCP: Philippines: Number of displaced people increases from 3 million to 4 million – 2.5 million people require food aid
- 2013/11/17: UN: Food still major priority for typhoon survivors, [WFP head, Ertharin Cousin] says during Philippines visit
- 2013/11/12: Cryptome: Philippines Typhoon Haiyan Photos
Tropical Cyclone Alessia is threatening Northern Western Australia:
- 2013/11/24: ABC(Au): Cyclone Alessia: Warning issued as storm approaches Darwin, Tiwi Islands
- 2013/11/23: ABC(Au): Cyclone Alessia: Northern Territory on alert as cyclone approaches the coast
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): Communities in WA's far north are preparing for a possible cyclone to cross the coast
- 2013/11/22: NASA: NASA Sees Tropical Cyclone Alessia Form, Threaten Western Australia
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Eyes turn to skies as early monsoon trough forms over north-west
The weather bureau says there is a high possibility of a cyclone forming in the Top End over the weekend. Forecasters say a tropical low is developing off the north-west Australian coast.
- 2013/11/19: ABC(Au): Employers in north-west Western Australia are being told to ensure they have a cyclone contingency plan in place to protect workers
Tropical Storm Helen [04B] zapped the East coast of India:
- 2013/11/23: IndiaTimes: Andhra Pradesh: Cyclone causes heavy damage to crops
Hyderabad: Cyclone Helen, which crossed Andhra Pradesh coast Friday, has damaged crops on over 1.69 lakh hectares, officials said. The officials have also confirmed six deaths due to the cyclone.
- 2013/11/23: IndiaTimes: Helen effect: More rainfall expected in Andhra
- 2013/11/22: IndiaTimes: Heavy rains as Cyclone Helen hits Andhra coast, 7 dead
Hyderabad: Cyclonic storm Helen Friday hit Andhra Pradesh coast near Machilipatnam, triggering heavy rains and strong gales, killing seven people and causing massive damage to the crops in the coastal region. Trees were uprooted disrupting traffic and communication and electricity towers were damaged as strong gales with speed reaching 100-110 kmph caused havoc in the coastal districts of Krishna and two Godavari districts. The deaths were mostly caused by falling trees in the affected districts, said officials.
- 2013/11/21: Eureka: NASA sees Tropical Storm Helen affecting southeastern India
- 2013/11/21: CBC: India-bound cyclone [04B] leads to evacuations — Storm surge of up to 1.5 metres expected
- 2013/11/20: Eureka: Tropical Cyclone Helen [04B] headed for landfall in India
- 2013/11/19: NASA: Tropical Cyclone 04B Forms in Northern Indian Ocean
There is another Tropical Cyclone – Lehar [05B] – unreported, but also heading for the East coast of India:
In the Atlantic, Melissa came and went safely out at sea:
- 2013/11/23: MODIS: Subtropical Storm Melissa (14L) in the North Atlantic Ocean [on Nov.18]
- 2013/11/21: Eureka: NASA catches Melissa's fickle life as a tropical storm
- 2013/11/20: Eureka: NASA's TRMM satellite sees Melissa's tropical transition
- 2013/11/19: NASA: NASA Sees Late Season Subtropical Storm Melissa Form in Atlantic
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2013/11/20: UCSUSA:B: Counting the Cost of Climate Disasters: What do Hurricane Sandy and Typhoon Haiyan Tell Us About What the U.S. and the Philippines Have in Common?
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): After Haiyan: how to act on scientific advice that's politically inconvenient?
- 2013/11/17: TP:JR: In Somalia, The Other Natural Disaster That Nobody Is Talking About
This week in notable weather:
- 2013/11/23: CBC: Powerful storms in Western U.S. leave 8 dead — Hundreds of accidents reported as storm system marches east
- 2013/11/23: CSM: Snow and flooding hit Western states
- 2013/11/21: CBC: State of emergency in Badger as storm causes havoc
Marine Atlantic keeps its ferries to Nova Scotia tied up as high winds roil Cabot Strait A state of emergency was called in the central Newfoundland town of Badger Thursday, as a fierce storm with high winds tore down power lines. The storm caused problems from the west coast of Newfoundland through to the northeast coast, with power outages reported in numerous locations.
- 2013/11/21: al Jazeera: Storms rage across the Arabian Peninsula — At least 18 people have been killed as torrential rain pours across the region
- 2013/11/20: Wunderground: Floods From Mediterranean Storm 'Ruven' Kill 18 in Sardinia, Italy
- 2013/11/18: CBC: Ontario storms cause widespread power outages
More than 100,000 homes, businesses between Windsor and the Kingston area without power at storm's peak
Got any forecasts?
- 2013/11/22: GLaden: Storm Boreas: Thanksgiving Nor'easter?
- 2013/11/21: NOAANews: Drought likely to persist or develop in the Southwest, Southeastern U.S. this winter
No strong climate pattern influence anticipated through upcoming winter season
- 2013/11/21: Wunderground: NOAA's Winter Forecast: Drought and Warmth in the South
This week in the New Normal — extreme weather:
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Will extreme weather like super typhoon Haiyan become the new norm?
- 2013/11/19: CNN: Storm kills at least 16 on Italian island of Sardinia, two missing
- 2013/11/19: PSinclair: "Apocalyptic" Rain in Sardinia
- 2013/11/19: ABC(Au): Freak storm leaves Mount Garnet damage trail
Severe weather overnight has damaged buildings at Mount Garnet in far north Queensland.
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): Expert warns of link between warming climate and extreme weather
As for GHGs:
- 2013/11/22: BBC: [Nitrous oxide] a threat to climate and ozone layer
- 2013/11/21: OSU: Pre-industrial rise in methane gas had natural and anthropogenic causes
- 2013/11/21: CCP: "Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers, 1854-2010," by Richard Heede, Climatic Change November 2013; doi: 10.1007/s10584-013-0986-y
- 2013/11/21: Stoat: Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions?
- 2013/11/21: SciShot: Drastic Cuts in Greenhouse Gases Won't Curb Long-Term Climate Change
- 2013/11/20: RTCC: Global emissions to reach record high in 2013 – report
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions
- 2013/11/18: Eureka: Global warming in the Canadian Arctic — Thaw ponds: An unaccounted source of greenhouse gas
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2013/11/24: MODIS: Dust storms in Alaska (morning overpass) [on Nov.16]
What's up with volcanoes this week?
- 2013/11/21: CBC: Volcano raises new island near Japan
- 2013/11/18: BBC: Volcanic Mount Sinbung in Sumatra, Indonesia, has sprung to life in a series of massive eruptions over the last few days
What's new in the Weather Machine?
- 2013/11/19: Wunderground:RR: Change in the Weather: Climate Change and Arctic Oscillation (7)
And on the ENSO front:
- 2013/11/19: ABC(Au): Super El Ninos to be more frequent
Australian climate scientists have discovered that a new extreme weather pattern they're calling a super El Nino is likely to strike Australia twice as often.
How is the temperature record?
- 2013/11/22: Wunderground: October 2013: Earth's 7th Warmest October; Thanksgiving Eve Nor'easter Coming
- 2013/11/18: Moyhu: October GISS Temp down by 0.13°C
- 2013/11/17: CCP: Graph of the Day: Record-breaking temperatures across Australia, 31 October 2013
What's new in proxies?
- 2013/11/18: Eureka: Underwater 'tree rings' — Calcite crusts of arctic algae record 650 years of sea ice change
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2013/11/20: NOAANews: New solar instrument [TCTE: Total solar irradiance Calibration Transfer Experiment] reaches orbit
Low-cost mission will ensure uninterrupted solar energy data used in climate research
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2013/11/22: Eureka: Acid raid, ozone depletion contributed to ancient extinction
- 2013/11/18: 14terstock: A pointer to the Paleoclimate Reconstruction Challenge
How to deal with Risk:
- 2013/11/20: Eureka: Financial decision makers need weather and climate information to manage risks
In the attribution debate:
- 2013/11/20: WottsUWTB: Statistically derived human influences
What's the State of the Oceans?:
- 2013/11/18: GeoMar: Respiratory disorder in the ocean
German-Peruvian science team demonstrates the influence of eddies on the oxygen sustenance
- 2013/11/17: EneNews: CBS News: 'Immense mystery' as sea stars being wiped out along West Coast, could be gone for generations…
What's the State of the Biosphere?
- 2013/11/23: EneNews: Die-offs of mammals, birds, reptiles in Western U.S….
- 2013/11/22: Eureka: Biodiversity higher in the tropics, but species more likely to arise at higher latitudes — Study supports counterintuitive explanation for global biodiversity trend
- 2013/11/18: Missoulian: Wild diseases: Threats concern Montana wildlife officials
- 2013/11/18: CBC: Manitoulin Island turtle deaths worry researchers
More than 50 dead turtles found on northern Ontario island this summer
And on the extinction watch:
- 2013/11/22: al Jazeera: Malaysia probes wildlife smuggler Lizard King
Decision follows airing of exclusive Al Jazeera report on endangered-reptiles trafficking with focus on Anson Wong.
- 2013/11/21: TreeHugger: Just this year, poachers have killed about 10% of the remaining red wolf population in the U.S.
- 2013/11/20: TheConversation: Will we hunt dingoes to the brink like the Tasmanian tiger?
- 2013/11/18: AlterNet: How Palm Oil in Everything From Food to Fuel Is Killing Orangutans and Exacerbating Climate Change
- 2013/11/18: SciAm:EC: Conservation's Holy Grail: 'Asian Unicorn' [saola] Sighted in Vietnam
- 2013/11/17: SciAm:EC: Sunday Species Snapshot: Jackass Penguin
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2013/11/18: ERW: Insight: climate change would benefit [Miscanthus] energy crop production in China
- 2013/11/21: ERW: More ecosystems at risk as temperature rises
- 2013/11/17: CCP: Darwin will be too hot for humans to live there
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2013/11/20: FuturePundit: Global Forest Loss Rate Has Accelerated
- 2013/11/19: TheConversation: How tree huggers can save forests with science
- 2013/11/18: Grist: Logging on the rise again in the Brazilian Amazon
- 2013/11/19: IOTD: Landsat 8 Detects New Deforestation in Peru [2012 vs 2013]
Climate refugees are becoming an issue:
- 2013/11/21: TheConversation: Migration is a solution to climate change, not a threat to security
Aerosols affect the climate, but they also affect people's health:
- 2013/11/22: TP:JR: Pittsburgh's Unique Air Pollution Makes Its Residents More Susceptible To Cancer, Study Says
Changes in natural cycles are showing up:
- 2013/11/19: UBC: Climate change may disrupt flight season of Canadian butterflies
The US Midwest got zapped by a string of tornadoes:
- 2013/11/20: PSinclair: Midwest Storms Wrap from Jeff Masters
- 2013/11/20: Xinhuanet: Aftermath of tornado attack in Illinois,U.S. [pix]
- 2013/11/19: Wunderground: Midwest Cleans up 2013's Biggest Severe Weather Outbreak; Floods Kill 17 in Sardinia
- 2013/11/19: WSWS: Deadly storm system hits multiple US states
- 2013/11/19: al Jazeera: Late autumn tornadoes hit US Midwest
Death and destruction result from November twisters, but how unusual are they this late in the season?
- 2013/11/18: Wunderground: Rare November Tornado Outbreak Kills 6; Subtropical Storm Melissa Forms
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): At least eight dead and thousands without power as tornadoes hit midwest
- 2013/11/18: CBC: Tornadoes, powerful storms hit U.S. Midwest, killing 7
Dozens of tornadoes, mostly in Illinois, strike U.S., leaving massive trail of destruction
- 2013/11/18: CNN: Midwest tornadoes: 'The sky was just rumbling'
- 2013/11/18: Xinhuanet: 5 dead as tornadoes ravage U.S. Midwest
- 2013/11/18: CBC: Tornadoes, damaging storms hit U.S. Midwest, killing 6
80 tornadoes, mostly in Illinois, struck U.S., National Weather Service website reports
- 2013/11/17: Wunderground: Dangerous 'High Risk' Midwest U.S. Tornado Outbreak Underway
- 2013/11/17: CSM: Midwest tornado: Powerful storm heads east from Great Lakes
- 2013/11/17: CCP: Jeff Masters: Sunday's severe weather outbreak; 5 severe weather outbreaks costing more than $5 billion total
- 2013/11/17: CBC: Tornadoes, damaging storms hit U.S. Midwest, killing 3
Storm levels neighbourhoods in central Illinois, reducing structures to rubble and overturning cars
- 2013/11/17: BBC: Deadly tornadoes hit Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky
There was also some action in Australia:
- 2013/11/24: ABC(Au): Tornado and storms cause havoc: Namoi SES
A woman in her 70s was lucky to escape with her life as a mini-tornado ripped her house to shreds at Tenterden on Saturday.
- 2013/11/23: ABC(Au): Tornado rips roof off house in Guyra, north-eastern NSW
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): Eight injured, cinema roof collapses as 'mini tornado' hits Hornsby in Sydney
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2013/11/24: IOTD: Yosemite Valley and the Rim Fire Burn Scar [on Sept.16]
- 2013/11/20: DD: Graph of the Day: Forest fires near Yakutsk, Russia, 2000-2012
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): RFS declares Section 44 on Lewis Road Fire near Bingara
A Section 44 declaration has been made for the Lewis Road Fire, which has burned around 400 hectares of rugged timber country north of Bingara since Friday. The declaration enables round-the-clock firefighting capacity and permits out-of-area resources to be brought in.
- 2013/11/18: MODIS: Fires in West Africa [on Nov.7]
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2013/11/21: QuarkSoup: Summary on ocean acidification
- 2013/11/17: BBC: Emissions of CO2 driving rapid oceans 'acid trip' [IGBP]
The world's oceans are becoming acidic at an "unprecedented rate" and may be souring more rapidly than at any time in the past 300 million years.
Glaciers are melting:
- 2013/11/22: FaGP: Rink Gletscher, Retreat NW Greenland
- 2013/11/17: FaGP: Steenstrup Glacier Retreat, New Island Generation NW Greenland
Sea levels are rising:
- 2013/11/23: RealClimate: Sea-level rise: What the experts expect
- 2013/11/22: Eureka: Sea level rise forecasts helped by insights into glacier melting
Predictions of sea level rise could become more accurate, thanks to new insight into how glacier movement is affected by melting ice in summer
- 2013/11/18: CCP: Sea level rise continues at 3.2 +/- 0.4 mm per year
- 2013/11/17: CCP: Rising sea levels, falling real estate values
These extreme rainfall events are becoming all too frequent:
- 2013/11/20: TP:JR: Italian Island Hit By 'Apocalyptic' Storm As 17 Inches Of Rain Fall In 90 Minutes
- 2013/11/19: al Jazeera: Sardinia hit by deadly floods — The Mediterranean island has been hit by a rare and intense deluge
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): Sardinia on 'maximum alert' after deadly storms
Reports of nine dead after torrential rain sweeps cars away and causes bridge to collapse on Italian island
- 2013/11/18: BBC: Sardinia storms and flash floods kill at least nine
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2013/11/23: ABC(Au): Record rains produce flash floods on north Queensland coast
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): Wild weather causes flash flooding in Sydney
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): Drought-hit Queensland paddocks soak up rain
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): Too much rain for many farmers
Heavy rainfall over many parts of Tasmania has damaged freshly planted crops and caused headaches for farmers ready to harvest other crops. The weather bureau says more heavy rain will fall in areas of the state over the weekend, areas which have had well above average rainfall over the past few months.
- 2013/11/20: RT: Cyclone Cleopatra: Sardinia recovers from deadly floods [pic]
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): Worsening drought triggers extra $7.5 million for NSW farmers
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): Graziers fight drought in South Australia's far north
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Vietnam floods death toll rises to 42
- 2013/11/19: CBC: Vietnam floods kill 41, injure 74 — Many residents allowed back home as floodwaters recede
- 2013/11/17: BBC: Floods kill many in central Vietnam after heavy rains
First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
Second, put a price on carbon
Third, begin to reduce the human population
And elsewhere on the mitigation front:
- 2013/11/22: RtS: Zero Emissions by 2050
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): The world cannot afford to delay drastic emissions cuts, studies show
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Make the rich change their ways to avoid a 2C rise, says top scientist
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Polluters list points the way to combating climate change
Can cities take up the slack when nations shirk their responsibilities?
- 2013/11/22: ICN: Bloomberg's Hidden Legacy: Climate Change and the Future of New York City, Part 5
- 2013/11/21: ICN: Bloomberg's Hidden Legacy: Climate Change and the Future of New York City, Part 4
- 2013/11/20: ICN: Bloomberg's Hidden Legacy: Climate Change and the Future of New York City, Part 3
- 2013/11/19: ICN: Bloomberg's Hidden Legacy: Climate Change and the Future of New York City, Part 2
- 2013/11/19: ICN: Bloomberg's Hidden Legacy: Climate Change and the Future of New York City, Part 1
- 2013/11/18: ICN: Bloomberg's Hidden Legacy: Climate Change and the Future of New York City
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2013/11/22: TreeHugger: LEDs become part of the building fabric with "Light Transmissive Carpets"
- 2013/11/21: TreeHugger: New LEED standards mean healthier, greener buildings on the way
- 2013/11/21: TreeHugger: Amazing glass that tints on demand is now solar powered
- 2013/11/21: PSinclair: More on the Net Zero House
- 2013/11/21: TheConversation: Why energy-saving homes often use more energy
- 2013/11/18: PSinclair: Good News Monday: Zero Energy Affordable Housing/Batteries Included
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2013/11/22: ICN: Global Boom in Coal Plants Begs for Carbon Capture Solution
The CCS drumbeat builds during Warsaw climate talks, as data reveal nearly 1,200 coal-burning plants are on the drawing boards amid record warming.
- 2013/11/21: ICN: Global Boom in Coal Plants Begs for Carbon Capture Solution
The CCS drumbeat builds during Warsaw climate talks, as data reveal nearly 1,200 coal-burning plants are on the drawing boards amid record warming.
- 2013/11/18: TheCanadian: International Coal Summit's pipe dream of carbon capture & storage
- 2013/11/18: DeSmogBlog: International Coal Summit's Glorious Pipe Dream of Carbon Capture and Storage
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2013/11/20: Springer: (ab$) Special Issue: Geoengineering Research and its Limitations
- 2013/11/22: Economist: Geo-engineering and climate change – Stopping a scorcher – The controversy over manipulating climate change
[Book Review] _Earthmasters: The Dawn of the Age of Climate Engineering_ by Clive Hamilton
[Book Review] _A Case for Climate Engineering_ by David Keith
- 2013/11/20: DerSpiegel: Cheap But Imperfect: Can Geoengineering Slow Climate Change?
Canadian environmental scientist David Keith wants to change the world's climate by creating a type of sun filter in the sky to halt global warming. In an interview, he argues the technology is effective and inexpensive, but critics liken it to a nuclear bomb.
- 2013/11/19: GoC: Solar Geoengineering and the Problem of Liability (Opinion Article)
What's new in restoration?
- 2013/11/22: BBC: Fresh effort to clone extinct animal
Scientists in Spain have received funding to test whether an extinct mountain goat can be cloned from preserved cells. The bucardo became extinct in 2000, but cells from the last animal were frozen in liquid nitrogen. In 2003, a cloned calf was brought to term but died a few minutes after birth. Now, the scientists will test the viability of the female bucardo's 14-year-old preserved cells.
While on the adaptation front:
- 2013/11/22: TP:JR: More Than 4.5 Million U.S Homes Are At 'High Or Extreme Risk' From Wildfires
- 2013/11/18: ERabett: Adaptation For Those That Can Afford It
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2013/11/19: GMD: The SPRINTARS version 3.80/4D-Var data assimilation system: development and inversion experiments based on the observing system simulation experiment framework by K. Yumimoto & T. Takemura
- 2013/11/19: OS: Near-surface diurnal warming simulations: validation with high resolution profile measurements by B. Scanlon et al.
- 2013/11/19: OSD: Turbulent mixing in the seasonally-stratified western Irish Sea: a Thorpe Scale perspective by K. L. Stansfield et al.
- 2013/11/19: TC: Seasonal and annual mass balances of Mera and Pokalde glaciers (Nepal Himalaya) since 2007 by P. Wagnon et al.
- 2013/11/19: TCD: Modeling near-surface firn temperature in a cold accumulation zone (Col du Dôme, French Alps): from a physical to a semi-parameterized approach by A. Gilbert et al.
- 2013/11/19: TCD: Tectonic and oceanographic controls on Abbot Ice Shelf thickness and stability by J. R. Cochran et al.
- 2013/11/19: TCD: Sensitivity of the Weddell Sea sector ice streams to sub-shelf melting and surface accumulation by A. P. Wright et al.
- 2013/11/20: Springer: (ab$) Special Issue: Geoengineering Research and its Limitations
- 2013/11/19: PNAS: (ab$) Nitrogen isotope effects induced by anammox bacteria by Benjamin Brunner et al.
- 2013/11/19: PNAS: (abs) Sagebrush carrying out hydraulic lift enhances surface soil nitrogen cycling and nitrogen uptake into inflorescences by Zoe G. Cardon et al.
- 2013/11/19: PNAS: (ab$) Gas injection may have triggered earthquakes in the Cogdell oil field, Texas by Wei Gan & Cliff Frohlich
- 2013/11/19: PNAS: (ab$) Human health impacts of ecosystem alteration by Samuel S. Myers et al.
- 2013/11/21: ACP: Linking biogenic hydrocarbons to biogenic aerosol in the Borneo rainforest by J. F. Hamilton et al.
- 2013/11/18: ESD: Can bioenergy cropping compensate high carbon emissions from large-scale deforestation of high latitudes? by P. Dass et al.
- 2013/11/18: ACP: On the possibilities to use atmospheric reanalyses to evaluate the warming structure in the Arctic by C. E. Chung et al.
- 2013/11/18: ACP: Impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation on European aerosol ground levels through local processes: a seasonal model-based assessment using fixed anthropogenic emissions by S. Jerez et al.
- 2013/11/19: ACPD: Global risk from the atmospheric dispersion of radionuclides by nuclear power plant accidents in the coming decades by T. Christoudias et al.
- 2013/11/18: ACPD: On the detection of the solar signal in the tropical stratosphere by G. Chiodo et al.
- 2013/11/21: Nature:CC: (ab$) The role of short-lived climate pollutants in meeting temperature goals by Niel H. A. Bowerman et al.
- 2013/11/22: BG: Pan-Arctic linkages between snow accumulation and growing-season air temperature, soil moisture and vegetation by K. A. Luus et al.
- 2013/11/21: BG: Enhancement of photosynthetic carbon assimilation efficiency by phytoplankton in the future coastal ocean by J.-H. Kim et al.
- 2013/11/22: BGD: Composition of eroded carbon during its journey through a tropical watershed: a clue to the question whether it is source or sink of CO2 by C. Rumpel et al.
- 2013/11/21: BGD: New foliage growth is a significant, unaccounted source for volatiles in boreal evergreen forests by J. Aalto et al.
- 2013/11/19: BG: A short history of ocean acidification science in the 20th century: a chemist's view by P. G. Brewer
- 2013/11/18: BG: Long-term trends in ocean plankton production and particle export between 1960-2006 by C. Laufkötter et al.
- 2013/11/18: BGD: Sudden cold temperature regulates the time-lag between plant CO2 uptake and release by M. Barthel et al.
- 2013/11/18: BGD: A novel reflectance-based model for evaluating chlorophyll concentration of fresh and water-stressed leaves by C. Lin et al.
- 2013/11/20: CP: Trace elements and cathodoluminescence of detrital quartz in Arctic marine sediments – a new ice-rafted debris provenance proxy by A. Müller & J. Knies
- 2013/11/22: CPD: Holocene changes in African vegetation: tradeoff between climate and water availability by C. Hély et al.
- 2013/11/22: CPD: The impacts of Meltwater Pulse-1A in the South Atlantic Ocean deep circulation since the Last Glacial Maximum by J. M. Marson et al.
- 2013/11/20: CPD: Modeling of severe persistent droughts over eastern China during the last millennium by Y. Peng et al.
- 2013/11/22: Science: (ab$) Humans Fueled Global Warming Millennia Ago by Richard A. Kerr
- 2013/11/22: Springer:CC: Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers, 1854-2010 by Richard Heede
- 2013/11/22: ACP: Dry deposition of nitrogen compounds (NO2, HNO3, NH3), sulfur dioxide and ozone in west and central African ecosystems using the inferential method by M. Adon et al.
- 2013/11/22: GMD: A hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian numerical scheme for solving prognostic equations in fluid dynamics by E. Kaas et al.
- 2013/11/22: GMDD: The regional MiKlip decadal forecast ensemble for Europe by S. Mieruch et al.
- 2013/11/21: OS: Microstructure measurements and estimates of entrainment in the Denmark Strait overflow plume by V. Paka et al.
- 2013/11/21: OS: An optical model for deriving the spectral particulate backscattering coefficients in oceanic waters by S. P. Tiwari & P. Shanmugam
- 2013/11/22: TC: Modeling energy and mass balance of Shallap Glacier, Peru by W. Gurgiser et al.
- 2013/11/21: TCD: Review article: the false-bottom ice by D. V. Alexandrov et al.
- 2013/11/20: TCD: Oscillatory subglacial drainage in the absence of surface melt by C. Schoof et al.
- 2013/11/20: TCD: Ocean properties, ice-ocean interactions, and calving front morphology at two major west Greenland glaciers by N. Chauché et al.
- 2013/11/22: GSA:Geology: (ab$) Amino acid ratios in reworked marine bivalve shells constrain Greenland Ice Sheet history during the Holocene by Jason P. Briner et al.
- 2013/11/17: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Potential influence of sulphur bacteria on Palaeoproterozoic phosphogenesis by Aivo Lepland et al.
- 2013/11/17: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Seismic detection of an active subglacial magmatic complex in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica by Amanda C. Lough et al.
- 2013/11/17: Nature:CC: (ab$) Partial offsets in ocean acidification from changing coral reef biogeochemistry by Andreas J. Andersson et al.
- 2013/07/11: Lancet: Population, development, and climate change: links and effects on human health by Judith Stephenson et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2013/11/19: HRW: [link to 4.7 meg pdf] Troubled Water — Burst Pipes, Contaminated Wells, and Open Defecation in Zimbabwe's Capital
- 2013/11/21: CREW: [link to 217k pdf] Natural Cash – Fracking Industry Contributions to Congress
- 2013/11/20: DARP: [link to 525k pdf] Report on Digital Activism and Non-Violent Conflict
- 2013/11/18: GermanWatch: [link to 3.5 meg pdf] CCPI – The Climate Change Performance Index 2014 — A comparison of the 58 top CO2 emitting nations
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2013/11/23: TSoD: Ghosts of Climates Past – Part Seven – GCM I
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Researchers link land clearing to rainfall reduction
Researchers in Western Australia say they've identified a direct causal link between extensive land clearing and declining rainfall. A team from the University of WA says it has conclusive evidence that deforestation in the state's south-west caused a reduction in rainfall. And they're calling for an urgent replanting of forests.
- 2013/11/20: PSinclair: Midweek Wonk: What Does the Science Say about Cyclone Intensity?
- 2013/11/19: AGWObserver: IPCC AR5 references — WG1 Chapter 2, observations: atmosphere and surface
- 2013/11/18: RealClimate: Statistics and Climate
In the science organizations:
- 2013/11/22: ScienceInsider: [Chinese] Communist Party Takes Aim at Elite Scientists
- 2013/11/19: NatureN: Mexico bolsters science funding — President aims to boost spending and reform research laws
What's new in models?
- 2013/11/19: CLBook: Updates to comparison of CMIP5 models & observations
- 2013/11/14: NSF: Scientists nearing forecasts of long-lived wildfires' paths
New computer modeling technique offers promise of continually updated predictions
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?
- 2013/11/19: NatureN: PLOS profits prompt revamp — Incoming boss plans peer-review shake-up at Public Library of Science
Regarding Manabe:
- 2013/11/23: SimpleC: The model scientist who fixed the greenhouse effect [Syukuro Manabe]
Meanwhile at the UN:
- 2013/11/19: WMO: Responding to Environmental Stressors of 21st Century
- 2013/11/19: ABC(Au): Coal industry must change: UN climate chief
- 2013/11/18: UN: Coal industry must diversify to avert worst impacts of climate change – UN official [Figueres]
- 2013/11/17: UN: Maldives: Ban welcomes conclusion of presidential run-off election
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2013/11/22: DemNow: Climate Activists: Carbon Trading a "False Solution" Pushed by Bankers and Bureaucrats
- 2013/11/19: BBerg: EU, California Show China How to Avoid Carbon-Permit Oversupply
European Union and Californian emissions markets have shown China how to avoid the pitfall of oversupply in its own carbon-trading programs, said the vice mayor of the city of Shenzhen. Permit prices on the EU Emissions Trading System plunged 80 percent the past five years, according to data from the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. Officials from China examined why this happened, said Tang Jie, vice mayor of the southern Chinese city that has a population of 13 million and average income of $20,000. "If you look at EU ETS, excessive quota or irrational allocation of the quota for the power sector caused the lower price," Tang said yesterday at climate talks in Warsaw. Instead of Europe's model of initially granting allowances for free, China has opted to follow California and require carbon emitters to bid for allowances.
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
- 2013/11/19: EnvEcon: Low ($1.80/tC) Global Carbon Tax
On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:
- 2013/11/23: CNN: White House issues synopsis on Iran nuclear deal
- 2013/11/24: EUO: EU announces Iran nuclear deal
- 2013/11/23: UN: UN chief welcomes interim agreement on Iran's nuclear programme
- 2013/11/24: CSM: The Iran nuclear deal's test of motives
- 2013/11/23: CSM: Iran nuclear deal: A temporary freeze and some sanctions eased
- 2013/11/24: Xinhuanet: New round of Iran nuclear talks conclude with an agreement
- 2013/11/24: RT: P5+1 and Iran agree landmark nuclear deal at Geneva talks
- 2013/11/23: NYT: Accord Reached With Iran to Halt Nuclear Program
Geneva – The United States and five other world powers announced a landmark accord Sunday morning that would temporarily freeze Iran's nuclear program and lay the foundation for a more sweeping agreement.
- 2013/11/24: BBC: Iran nuclear deal — Key Points – Live Text
- 2013/11/24: al Jazeera: Diplomats strike deal in Iran talks
The interim agreement curbs Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for limited sanctions relief.
- 2013/11/23: CBC: Iran agrees to halt nuclear program in historic deal in Geneva
Tehran agrees to stop nuclear progress in exchange for limited sanctions relief Iran committed to halt the expansion of its uranium enrichment program and not to press ahead with its Arak reactor or related plutonium program, the United States said on Sunday describing a nuclear agreement between Tehran and six major world powers. The breakthrough deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief was reached Sunday in what could be the first sign of an emerging rapprochement between the Islamic state and the West.
- 2013/11/23: BBC: Iran nuclear: Geneva talks 'reach deal' – No details have been released
- 2013/11/24: ABC(Au): Iran nuclear program deal reached with world powers during diplomatic talks in Geneva
- 2013/11/23: CBC: Iran nuclear deal doesn't include right to enrich uranium
Iran gets access to $4.2 billion in foreign exchange as part of deal, says Western diplomat A senior Obama administration official says the nuclear deal with Iran does not include recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium — a sticking point in the negotiations between Iran and six world powers, including the United States. The official says the deal includes an agreement that Iran will halt progress on its nuclear program, including a plutonium reactor at the Arak facility. The deal also calls on Iran to neutralize its 20 percent enriched uranium stockpiles. Tehran has also agreed to intrusive inspections under the terms of the deal.
- 2013/11/24: Guardian(UK): Iran nuclear deal complete after days of talks, ministers confirm
- 2013/11/23: BBerg: Kerry Joins Diplomats in Geneva to Seek Deal With Iran
Top diplomats from the U.S., U.K. and France arrived in Geneva in an attempt to secure a first-step accord ending the decade-long standoff with Iran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, this morning, according to a U.S. official who asked not to be identified. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague will also attend today's talks. Kerry traveled to the Swiss city "in light of progress being made" and to join his counterparts "should agreement be reached," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said yesterday in a Twitter Inc. posting. In an earlier statement, he said only that Kerry was going to Geneva "with the goal of continuing to help narrow the differences and move closer to an agreement."
- 2013/11/23: BBerg: Iran Nuclear Talks Mired in Details of Enrichment, Arak
- 2013/11/23: RT: What Netanyahu wants is Iran's surrender, not negotiated nuclear deal
The deal that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the international community to strike with Tehran is basically an Iranian surrender, not a proper agreement, John Limbert, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran, tells RT.
- 2013/11/22: IndiaTimes: Iran nuclear talks enter crucial third day
- 2013/11/22: IndiaTimes: Modest 'progress' in Iran nuclear talks
- 2013/11/22: IndiaTimes: Iran says 'no progress' in Day 2 of nuclear talks
- 2013/11/22: RT: US senators jeopardize dragging out Iran talks with threat of further sanctions
Just as another day of Geneva talks on Iran's nuclear program brought no results, a bipartisan group of 14 US senators announced their plan to work hard and fast to introduce a new package of sanctions, adding more pressure on already tough negotiations.
- 2013/11/21: AntiWar: Senate Leaders Promise New Iran Sanctions After Recess — Deal Or No, Senate Set to Derail Iran Rapprochement
- 2013/11/21: BBC: Iran and P5+1 struggle on nuclear deal in Geneva
- 2013/11/18: al Jazeera: France promises Israelis tough stance on Iran
Francois Hollande, speaking on visit to Israel, says Iran must fulfil four conditions for nuclear deal to take place. French President Francois Hollande assured Israel on Sunday that his country would continue to oppose an easing of economic sanctions against Iran until it was convinced Tehran had ended a pursuit of nuclear weapons. Speaking in Jerusalem on the first part of a three-day visit to Israel and West Bank, he laid out four demands which must be in place for an agreement with Iran to successfully rein in its nuclear programme. "France is in favour of an interim agreement but on the basis of four points," Hollande said at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The first demand: put all the Iranian nuclear installations under international supervision, right now. Second point: suspend enrichment to 20 percent. Thirdly: to reduce the existing stock. "And finally, to halt construction of the Arak (heavy water) plant. These are the points which for us are essential to guarantee any agreement," he said. His remarks were made on the eve of a new round of talks in Geneva between world powers and Iran seeking to reach an agreement to scale back Tehran's contested nuclear programme.
- 2013/11/17: AntiWar: Iran FM Sees Ways Around Sticking Points in Nuclear Talks — Confident a Deal Can Be Reached
South [& East] China Sea tension persists:
- 2013/11/23: China:MoD: Statement by the Government of the People's Republic of China on Establishing the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone [map]
- 2013/11/23: China:MoD: The Defense Spokesman Yang Yujun's Response to Questions on the Establishment of The East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone
- 2013/11/24: Xinhuanet: Commentary: China's setup of air zone legitimate, conducive to regional peace
- 2013/11/24: RT: China claims contested airspace over islands, sets defense zone
- 2013/11/24: al Jazeera: US criticises China's 'air defence' move
US calls China's move to control disputed island air space "destabilising", but says it will not alter the status quo.
- 2013/11/23: CBC: China bolsters East China Sea claim — Japan scrambles fighters against reconnaissance planes as China warns of 'defensive measures'
- 2013/11/23: BBerg: China Declares Air Defense Zone in East China Sea Amid Row
China declared an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea amid a territorial dispute with Japan, warning its armed forces will take "defensive emergency measures" if aircraft fail to comply. A map, details of the zone's coordinates, and rules governing the area were posted on the Ministry of Defense's website today, along with a question and answer statement from Yang Yajun, a ministry spokesman. Japan's Foreign Ministry lodged a complaint with China over the zone, Kyodo News said.
- 2013/11/23: Xinhuanet: Defense Ministry spokesman responds to air defense identification zone questions
- 2013/11/23: IndiaTimes: China creates air defence zone over over East China Sea
- 2013/11/23: BBC: China establishes 'air-defence zone' over East China Sea
China has demarcated an "air-defence identification zone" over an area of the East China Sea, covering islands that are also claimed by Japan.
- 2013/11/23: ABC(Au): China creates air defence zone over disputed islands, ramping up pressure on Japan
Beijing has announced it is setting up an "air defence identification zone" over an area that includes islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China, in a move that could inflame the bitter territorial row. The defence ministry has released a set of identification rules that it says all aircraft must adhere to when entering the zone, or risk intervention by the military.
- 2013/11/23: BBerg: China Declares Air-Defense Zone in East China Sea on Islands Row
- 2013/11/22: Asia Times: ASEAN as pawn in great power game
- 2013/11/22: Asia Times: Korea-Japan ties burdened by baggage
In the "global competition for natural resources":
- 2013/11/20: CassandrasLegacy: Mineral depletion: where do we stand?
- 2013/11/19: Resilience: A Scarcity of Rare Metals Is Hindering Green Technologies
In the power struggle between EU, Russia & Ukraine over natural gas:
- 2013/11/20: EurActiv: Slovakia agrees to reverse gas to Ukraine
Pipeline operators in Ukraine and Slovakia are on the verge of signing a deal that will allow the European Union to ship gas through Slovakia to Ukraine, reducing Kiev's dependence on Russia, the European Commission and Ukraine said yesterday (19 November).
- 2013/11/19: EUO: EU and Ukraine in anti-Russia gas deal [importing via Slovakia]
Regarding the EU FQD: Fuel Quality Directive:
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): Europe 'stigmatising' Canada by labelling tar sands oil highly polluting [says Oliver]
- 2013/11/19: CBC: Joe Oliver takes oilsands fight to Europe's financial heart
- 2013/11/19: G&M: EU's targeting of oil sands could have spillover effect on Keystone XL: Oliver
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said a move by the European Union to target the oil sands could have an indirect impact on the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline project because it will stigmatize Canadian oil.
These 'free trade' treaties feature fundamentally anti-democratic dispute resolution mechanisms:
- 2013/11/19: RealEconomics: NAFTA on steroids — Stop TPP!
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): The Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty is the complete opposite of 'free trade'
The TPP would strip our constitutional rights, while offering no gains for the majority of Americans. It's a win for corporations
- 2013/11/18: WaPo: The United States is isolated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations
As for miscellaneous international political happenings:
- 2013/11/20: Asia Times: China, US can drive clean-tech revolution
- 2013/11/21: al Jazeera: Egypt and Ethiopia leaders meet over Nile row
First talks on Ethiopia's plan to dam the Nile since Egypt's Mansour took power end without agreement in Kuwait.
- 2013/11/22: Asia Times: Nicaragua canal boosts China power
Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, resources, religion, ideology … etc.:
- 2013/11/23: CBC: Food waste, overeating threaten global security
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Inaction on climate change will increase civil unrest, warn leading groups
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
- 2013/11/24: OpenMedia: The government is spying on environmental groups. What do you think, Canada?
- 2013/11/23: RT: Russia dismisses intl tribunal ruling on Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship and crew
Russia is not going to comply with a maritime tribunal's ruling to release the Greenpeace vessel as the issue does not fall within its jurisdiction, said a Kremlin official, accusing the activists of using 'unsuitable means' for implementing their idea. "We have no plans to participate in the process", Sergey Ivanov, the head of the Russian Presidential administration told journalists in St. Petersburg on Saturday. According to a 1982 convention Russia can ignore the findings of the Tribunal on the Law for the Sea if it concerns Russia's sovereign rights and jurisdiction. Ivanov was referring to the Friday's ruling of the tribunal in Hamburg that ordered Russia to allow the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise vessel and the 30 activists who were onboard to leave the country for a bond of E3.6 million (about $5 million).
- 2013/11/23: LoE: It's official – Arctic 30 protestors are not pirates
- 2013/11/22: Guardian(UK): Freed Arctic 30 activist would risk freedom again for oil protest
- 2013/11/22: BBC: A UN maritime tribunal has ordered Russia to free a Greenpeace vessel and 30 people detained after an oil drilling protest in the Arctic
- 2013/11/22: al Jazeera: Russia frees Greenpeace activists on bail
The campaigners, who attempted to board a Russian oil rig in the Arctic, had been held for two months.
- 2013/11/22: ITLOS: The Arctic Sunrise Case (Kingdom of the Netherlands v. Russian Federation), Provisional Measures
- 2013/11/22: UN: UN-backed tribunal orders Russia to release Greenpeace protest ship and crew
- 2013/11/21: CBC: Alexandre Paul, Canadian Greenpeace protester, granted bail in Russia — Canadian Paul Ruzycki was cleared for release earlier this week
- 2013/11/21: DemNow: Greenpeace: In Opposing Oil Drilling, Detained "Arctic 30" Are Standing Up for Planet's 7 Billion
- 2013/11/20: DemNow: As 17 of Arctic 30 Granted Bail, Greenpeace Chief Calls Fossil Fuel CEOs "The Real Hooligans"
- 2013/11/20: CCP: Climate activist Reverend Billy [of the Church of Stop Shopping] faces prison time for JP Morgan stunt
Environmental activist Bill Talen, more commonly known as Reverend Billy, could be facing up to a year in prison for organizing a musical protest that brought singing, dancing activists to a Manhattan JP Morgan Chase Bank last month — all dressed as frogs.
- 2013/11/20: BBC: The captain and three Britons from on board the seized Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise have been granted bail by a court in northern Russia
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): Russia grants bail to New Zealand Greenpeace activist among 5 others
- 2013/11/19: RT: Russian court grants bail to 7 foreign Greenpeace activists
- 2013/11/19: ABC(Au): Australian Greenpeace activist Colin Russell to remain in prison for a further three months
- 2013/11/18: BBC: A court in St Petersburg has bailed three Russian nationals who were among 30 arrested during an Arctic protest
- 2013/11/18: IndiaTimes: Russia keeps Greenpeace activist [Colin Russell] in jail for 3 more months
- 2013/11/18: CBC: Greenpeace Arctic 30's 2 Canadians jailed in Russia — Paul Ruzycki and Alexandre Paul held for 60 days
- 2013/11/17: Guardian(UK): Spanish environmental activists could face lengthy jail terms for pie protest
Four men due to appear in court in Madrid in case likened by defence lawyer to the Inquisition
What are the activists up to?
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Logging in Challar Forest in the South West halted after protester chains herself to machine
- 2013/11/20: CBC: Greenpeace activists face mischief charges after scaling Biosphère
Activists demand Canadian government help protesters charged with hooliganism in Russia
- 2013/11/18: TP:JR: Thousands In Canada And Australia Protest Anti-Climate Policies
- 2013/11/17: CCurrents: Thousands Protest In Warsaw At Sluggish Climate Crisis Talks
The move to divest from fossil fuel investments is growing slowly:
- 2013/11/23: CDreams: Another Reason to Divest: Global Outrage at Dirty Coal Threatens Investors' Profits
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Combating climate change: is divesting from fossil fuel companies a good idea?
- 2013/11/21: CCurrents: Climate Change: Why The Divestment Movement Against Big Energy Matters
- 2013/11/19: TP:JR: Invest, Divest: Renewable Investment To Hit $630 Billion A Year In 2030, Fossil Fuel Stocks At Risk Today
Polls! We have polls!
- 2013/11/19: RTCC: Almost 80% of US citizens believe climate change is man-made
- 2013/11/18: DeSmogBlog: Canadians Losing Confidence in Governments on Climate Says New Poll
- 2013/11/18: TheConversation: Broad consensus on climate change across American states
Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:
- 2013/11/19: HRW: [link to 4.7 meg pdf] Troubled Water — Burst Pipes, Contaminated Wells, and Open Defecation in Zimbabwe's Capital
- 2013/11/22: UCSUSA:B: How Much Water Do Power Plants Use?
- 2013/11/20: UCSUSA:B: Energy-Water Collisions: Today's Landmark Resolution from the Nation's Electricity Regulators
- 2013/11/20: AllAfrica:SW Radio: Zimbabwe: Millions of Lives At Risk Over Govt Water Provision Failures
The Zimbabwe government has been warned that it is putting millions of lives at risk by failing to provide access to clean water in Harare, with a leading human rights group calling the water situation a serious crisis. Human Rights Watch on Tuesday launched a detailed report on the water situation in the capital, where access to clean water has been severely limited for years. The 60-page report, "Troubled Water: Burst Pipes, Contaminated Wells, and Open Defecation in Zimbabwe's Capital," describes how residents have little access to potable water and sanitation services, and often resort to drinking water from shallow, unprotected wells that are contaminated with sewage. Human Rights Watch said the conditions violate people's rights to water, sanitation, and health.
- 2013/11/20: TP:JR: Lake Erie Is Dying Again, And Warmer Waters And Wetter Weather Are To Blame
- 2013/11/17: JFleck: Simon Rifkind's great mistake and the shortfall on the Colorado River
- 2013/11/17: JFleck: Peak water, Arizona style
While in the UK:
- 2013/11/22: Guardian(UK): Climate change mitigation a business opportunity for UK firms, Davey says
- 2013/11/21: BBC: English seas get new marine conservation zones
The government has announced it will create 27 new marine conservation zones (MCZs) to protect wildlife in the seas around the English coast.
- 2013/11/21: BBC: Ministers fund science 'pet projects', says expert
The chair of the Lords science select committee has urged ministers to stop funding "pet projects". Lord Krebs told BBC News that the current approach to science funding has been "ad hoc". His comments come as his select committee publishes a report highlighting problems in funding research labs. It calls for a long-term strategy for investing in new labs and equipment.
- 2013/11/21: NatureNB: Cutting-edge UK science facilities going unused [because of a lack of money to run them]
- 2013/11/20: RTCC: UK pledges to end financing of coal plants
- 2013/11/20: BBC: Don't scrap green homes code, says MPs' committee
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): UK to stop funding coal projects in developing countries
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): UK: no new funding for coal-fired power stations abroad
- 2013/11/18: BBC: Wildlife and countryside groups attack [lack of govt.] progress on nature [conservancy]
The government is failing to deliver a third of its commitments to protect the natural environment, a report says. It has been compiled by 41 organisations, including The Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB, under the umbrella of Wildlife and Countryside Link.
- 2013/11/18: BBC: Small energy firms win new customers after price rises
And in Europe:
- 2013/11/22: EurActiv: Halving EU emissions by 2030 is affordable, says Britain
Cutting the European Union's greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2030 would reduce economic growth by a fraction of a percent, Britain's minister for energy and climate change said on Thursday.
- 2013/11/21: ScienceInsider: European Parliament approves Horizon 2020 Funding Plan
- 2013/11/21: EurActiv: EU adopts seven-year environment strategy
EU ministers and MEPs have signed into law the seventh environment action programme, setting out the bloc's long-term policy direction for the environment and climate.
- 2013/11/19: RTCC: EU directs 20% of budget to climate change on eve of UN finance meeting
- 2013/11/19: PSinclair: Have You Heard the One About the Polish Electrical Grid?
- 2013/11/18: RNE: Poland builds electronic wall to keep out German renewables
Poland, the host of the climate change negotiations, is going to extreme lengths to protect its coal-fired electricity industry – making sudden changes to renewable energy support schemes, and even going so far as erecting a form of electronic barrier to keep renewable energy from neighbouring Germany out of its grid. The move appears to have been made with the sole intention of protecting the economic interests of its incumbent, centralised and heavily coal reliant grid. As Germany roars towards a decentralised, renewables based grid, Poland appears determined to stick to the past. The contrast between the two countries could not be starker. The move to install equipment knows as phase-shifters on transmission links between Poland and Germany is designed to give the Polish grid operator the power to block excess renewables output from Germany entering the Polish grid. As in Germany, a large amount of renewable energy causes wholesale prices to come down, and profits to fall.
- 2013/11/17: BBerg: Norway Prime Minister Says Time Has Come to Cut Oil Reliance
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2013/11/23: ABC(Au): Clean up after bushfire expose coastal litter
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): Agribusiness urged to back biochar in Tasmania
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Victorian moratorium on fracking extended until mid 2015
- 2013/11/19: ABC(Au): BHP in Indonesian Borneo: the coal disaster waiting to happen
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Climate change the big ticket item at BHP Billiton AGM in Perth
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): More cuts to abalone catch
The abalone catch for 2014 will be reduced by 200 tonnes in Tasmanian waters to ensure the future viability of the industry. The president of the Tasmanian Abalone Council Greg Woodham says it's the third year in a row the quota has been cut and will cost the industry millions of dollars. Greg Woodham says the total allowable catch has been set at just over 1,900 tonnes for 2014…
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): RFS declares Section 44 on Lewis Road Fire near Bingara
- 2013/11/19: RNE: Has the RET [Renewable Energy Target] helped hobble Australian manufacturing?
- 2013/11/19: RNE: ARENA commits funds to boost community renewables
Less than a week after the Abbott government confirmed it would slash funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA has revealed it will be providing financial backing for a strategy to build up Australia's community renewable energy sector.
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): Mid North Coast residents join National Day of Action on Climate Change
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Climate change isn't a 'lefty' cause – Australia needs to deradicalise the issue
- 2013/11/18: WSWS: Former Australian PM Rudd quits parliament
- 2013/11/17: TheConversation: Unconventional gas in Victoria: proceed with care
Now we get to watch the suppository of wisdom destroy what little Australia has done to fight climate change:
- 2013/11/24: ABC(Au): Tony Abbott releases carbon tax video message saying Senate must scrap law by Christmas
- 2013/11/23: AIMN: An Open Letter to Abbott voters
- 2013/11/23: Xinhuanet: News Analysis: Indonesia spying crisis first major test for Australia's new gov't
- 2013/11/22: Polyfeministix: Break out the Champers Liberal & National Voters. Your achievements this week…
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au):TDU: So far, Abbott's best is not good enough
A Labor government created the problem with Indonesia, but only the Prime Minister can fix it. So far, he has done nothing other than place fresh impediments in the path of a solution, writes Barrie Cassidy.
- 2013/11/22: RNE: Australian solar market decline to continue without policy certainty
- 2013/11/22: RNE: Tony Abbott shoots Australia's carbon economy in the foot
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Lower House passes bill to repeal mining tax, but hostile Senate awaits
The bill to repeal the mining tax has passed in the Lower House of Federal Parliament, with the Labor Opposition accusing the Government of "kicking" ordinary Australians. The Greens are also opposed to dumping the tax, making it likely that the legislation will be blocked until the Senate changeover next July.
- 2013/11/21: PeakEnergy: Australia Heads Backwards On Climate Change
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Australia dashes G20 climate hopes
Despite their words, there is no evidence that the government takes climate change seriously. This is concerning in the light of the upcoming leadership of the G20.
- 2013/11/21: RNE: Australia reputation hits new low over t-shirt climate diplomacy
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Climate Institute urges Coalition to reconsider global carbon permits
- 2013/11/20: LeftFlank: We need to talk about Indonesia [supp]
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au):TDU: The high price of the gas boom
Tony Abbott will have to either drop the promise to cut emissions by five per cent or the promise to repeal the carbon tax – both together will be impossible without massive Government spending under the proposed "direct action" policy of paying companies to reduce emissions.
- 2013/11/20: ABC(Au): Indonesia suspends cooperation on people smuggling as Tony Abbott expresses 'deep and sincere' regret over spy reports
Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says all military and intelligence cooperation with Australia is on hold until he gets a proper explanation as to why Australian spies tried to tap his phone. Speaking in Jakarta today, an angry Mr Yudhoyono said Indonesia was suspending cooperation on people-smuggling issues, including combined maritime patrols. And he said he was writing to Prime Minister Tony Abbott to demand an official explanation on why Australian spies monitored his phone and those of members of his inner circle, including his wife.
- 2013/11/20: RNE: Climate denial group congratulates Australia during Warsaw talks
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Australia slides down to bottom on climate change performance index
- 2013/11/18: TMoS: Big Coal Australia and Big Oil Canada Tell Poor and Vulnerable Commonwealth Countries to "Get Stuffed"
- 2013/11/18: RNE: Climate change research targeted in era of political denial
- 2013/11/17: Guardian(UK): Five warning signs Tony Abbott is turning Australia into a reckless charco-state
Is Australia a risk of becoming the coal equivalent of a petro-state. Here are five warning signs.
- 2013/11/17: Guardian(UK): Tony Abbott says no to Commonwealth climate change fund
Australia and Canada reject plan for green capital fund to help poor nations deal with effects of climate change
Abbott is moving to kill the carbon price:
- 2013/11/22: RNE: China surprised and disappointed by Australia's carbon [price] repeal
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Lower house votes to dump carbon tax after 18 months
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Carbon tax repeal bill passes Lower House, heads to Senate
- 2013/11/21: PeakEnergy: Australia's LNG nuclear bomb – the repeal of the carbon tax
- 2013/11/19: TheConversation: An Emissions Reduction Fund could work, if well designed
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Coalition hastens Senate showdown over carbon tax repeal legislation
Labor pushing for a four-month inquiry, but Coalition and Greens both want Senate vote before Christmas
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): Carbon Farming initiative to reduce emissions in Tasmania
After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are far from over:
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): Victoria urges better cooperation between Murray-Darling Basin states
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): Communities adjusting to life under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): One year on: Big changes flow from Murray-Darling Basin Plan
The passage of one of Australia's most significant environmental reforms has not always been smooth. But there appears to be growing acceptance of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan a year after it became law. Farmers are still waiting to see the impact on the long path to full implementation by 2019.
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): Water sharing plan attacked after no irrigation for 7 weeks
The Cockburn Valley Water Users Association has written to Primary Industries Minister, Katrina Hodgkinson, seeking an urgent review of its Peel Valley water sharing plan.
- 2013/11/22: ABC(Au): Three-week window for Basin listing review
The Federal Government has three weeks to decide if it wants to challenge a 'critically endangered' listing for large areas of the Murray-Darling Basin. Shortly before the election was called, Labor water minister Mark Butler listed the Murray River below the Darling, and large areas of the western NSW Macquarie Marshes, as 'critically endangered'. Those listings can be overturned, but only within 15 sitting days of the declaration being made, which means a vote in the parliament before the end of the year.
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): The Bourke Council says it could soon have to start carting water to Byrock
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Council urges water drilling approval review
The Indigo Shire Council wants Victorian Water Minister Peter Ryan to review the approval of a commercial licence to drill for water in Stanley. It is concerned Goulburn Murray Water has breached the Water Act by failing to consult neighbouring residents on the potential impacts of the planned project. The community is concerned about the fragility of the town's watertable and the provision of potable water to Beechworth.
- 2013/11/19: ABC(Au): Gascoyne growers nervous as water restrictions start
- 2013/11/19: ABC(Au): Less rain sees lower Murray flows
Flows in the River Murray system last month were just over one-third of the long-term average. The Environment Department says 530 gigalitres flowed through the system last month compared to the October average of just over 1,400 gigalitres.
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): Gascoyne water situation worsens for growers
The water situation in Western Australia's Gascoyne region has become so dire that from today growers on opposite sides of the river will only be able to access water every other day.
- 2013/11/18: ABC(Au): SA and NSW bicker over Murray Darling Basin funding
And in China:
- 2013/11/22: SciAm:Obs: What Do China's New Policies Mean for the Environment?
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): How China's action on air pollution is slowing its carbon emissions
- 2013/11/19: Grist: China officially abandons its pursuit of "growth at all costs"
- 2013/11/18: Asia Times: Nationalist blowback to China's typhoon aid
While in Japan:
- 2013/11/20: TheConversation: Climate targets are the fallout from Japan's nuclear disaster
In Africa:
- 2013/11/21: TP:JR: Botswana Secretly Fracks World's Second-Largest Wildlife Preserve After Kicking Out The San People
- 2013/11/20: EurActiv: African Development Bank in row over whether gas is 'clean energy'
The counting of gas investments within the African Development Bank (AfDB)'s $2.2 billion clean energy portfolio is stirring 'internal argument' among leading bank experts, as the continent prepares for a possible shale gas boom.
- 2013/11/20: Guardian(UK): Cost of climate change adaptation could destabilise African countries, UN warns
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Botswana faces questions over licences for fracking companies in Kalahari
And South America:
- 2013/11/22: RTCC: Mexico signs Majuro climate change declaration
- 2013/11/22: Guardian(UK): Honduras elections [Nov.24]: leftist party challenges right's grip on power
- 2013/11/18: PLNA: Chileans to Vote for a New President on December
- 2013/11/17: PLNA: Ecuadorian Ambassador to Cuba Denounces Ecological Aggression
Ecuadorian Ambassador to Cuba Edgar Ponce on Saturday asked for solidarity with his people and government to face the aggression of Chevron-Texaco oil company, which is responsible for one of the largest environmental disasters in history.
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:
- 2013/11/24: OpenMedia: The government is spying on environmental groups. What do you think, Canada?
- 2013/11/21: TheCanadian: The day I discovered the Harper Government spying on me
- 2013/11/19: VanObs: Harper government's extensive spying on anti-oilsands groups revealed in FOIs
- 2013/11/19: TStar: Stephen Harper's climate-change record can't be ignored anymore: Hébert
Harper has made it impossible to have a national conversation on the economy without talking about pipelines, but just as impossible to debate those without addressing his climate change record.
- 2013/11/19: TheCanadian: Harper Government, CSIS spying on Enbridge critics
- 2013/11/19: TLS: "Stephen Harper's climate-change record can't be ignored anymore" – because it's putting Canadian jobs and our economy at risk
- 2013/11/19: BLongstaff: Harper outshames Ford
- 2013/11/18: TMoS: Big Coal Australia and Big Oil Canada Tell Poor and Vulnerable Commonwealth Countries to "Get Stuffed"
- 2013/11/18: TMoS: Speaking of Vandals, We're Number – Last
The Lac Mégantic tragedy drags on:
- 2013/11/21: CBC: Lac-Mégantic cleanup to get as much as $95M from Ottawa
A legal development for Elsipogtog this week:
- 2013/11/19: CDreams: 'Fight Far From Over' After First Nation Loses Bid to Stop Fracking in New Brunswick
Judge's ruling on Monday favors fracking company over Elsipogtog's water, land, treaty rights
- 2013/11/18: CBC: Judge rules SWN Resources can continue testing and rejects band's injunction request
The chief of Elsipogtog First Nation says he hopes the battle against shale gas exploration in New Brunswick will remain peaceful. His comments came Monday after the band lost its emergency bid to have all testing near its territory suspended. The legal defeat came on Monday, with a New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench judge ruling in favour of the province and SWN Resources Canada, the energy company doing the work. The band had been pushing for the suspension of all oil and gas licences and permits issued to SWN Resources Canada for exploration in the Signitog District of Mi'kmaki — an area that covers south of the Miramichi River and a portion of Nova Scotia near the New Brunswick border.
Canada at Warsaw. The embarassment:
- 2013/11/22: DbP: Report: Canada ranks last out of 27 developed countries on environmental protection: Canada's COP 19 'irrelevance'
- 2013/11/20: MoJo: US Ranks 43rd in the World on Climate Policy (and Canada is Even Worse)
- 2013/11/20: CBC: Canada's climate change stance 'de-motivating' — Critics say that's why the world is angry at Canada
- 2013/11/19: TheConversation: Australia and Canada are leading the wreckers at Warsaw
- 2013/11/18: TMoS: Talk About Government Waste. EnviroShill Aglukkaq Visits Warsaw
- 2013/11/18: CBC: Leona Aglukkaq attends her 1st UN climate change conference
Canadian delegation seen as largely irrelevant by some watchers because of past inaction
The Harper gang continues their black-is-white Fuel Quality Directive campaign. See also:
- 2013/11/19: CBC: Joe Oliver takes oilsands fight to Europe's financial heart
I wonder what story the Harper gang will come up with next to explain this dismal GHG record:
- 2013/11/19: CBC: Canada only a quarter of the way to greenhouse gas target
Environment minister Leona Aglukkaq's office lets it slip that Canada not even 'halfway there' Canada is only about a quarter of the way to hitting its greenhouse gas reduction goal, Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq's office admitted in a news release Monday. Until recently, the government has stuck to a claim that Canada is halfway to cutting its emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020. In a news release Monday, Aglukkaq's office said emissions have been reduced 4.8 per cent from 2005 levels. That figure works out to about a quarter – 28 per cent – of Canada's target, with six years left to go.
The ISA/PRV/IHN/Alpha virus in Canadian waters is potentially disastrous:
- 2013/11/19: TheCanadian: Canadian taxpayers bail out Norwegian fish farms for diseased fish
While in BC:
- 2013/11/22: PostMedia: Enbridge seeking run-of-river project on B.C. fish-bearing stream
- 2013/11/21: PostMedia: Increase in Northern Gateway pipeline support, but that could change, UBC prof says
- 2013/11/20: TheCanadian: Chinese company looks to fuel trucks with LNG plants in Vancouver, Edmonton
- 2013/11/19: Tyee: Clark Aide Joins Firm that Lobbies for Kinder Morgan
Gabe Garfinkel now an executive at FleishmanHillard, which also represents Chevron Canada, drug giants.
- 2013/11/19: Tyee: How First Nations Guardians Defend BC's Fragile Coast
With cuts to conservation protection, Aboriginal stewards step forth, on their own terms.
- 2013/11/18: Tyee: Six Months after Defeat, BC NDP Tries to Find Its Feet
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2013/11/23: CBC: Canadian oil production to rise 75% by 2035, NEB says — Demand forecast to increase by 28 per cent over the same period
- 2013/11/22: ETI:RRapier: Oil Sands and the Environment – Part II
- 2013/11/22: BBerg: Toxic Lakes From Tar-Sand Projects Planned for Alberta
- 2013/11/21: NYT: Working Around Keystone XL, Suncor Energy Steps Up Oil Production in Canada
- 2013/11/19: Grist: Piles of tar-sands waste in Chicago are pissing people off
- 2013/11/18: CPW: Alberta Tar Sands Boom Poses Economic Risks to Canada: [PI] Report
- 2013/11/18: TheCanadian: Talisman frackwater pit leaked for months, kept from public
A pit storing contaminated fracking water in northeast BC was leaking into the surrounding soil and groundwater for up to six months before owner Talisman formally notified the Oil and Gas Commission and undertook clean-up efforts…
Also in Alberta:
- 2013/11/24: DClimenhaga: No surprise, Alberta PCs endorse Alison Redford with the traditional 77% Solution
- 2013/11/21: Tyee: Andrew Nikiforuk on Big Energy: An Interview
- 2013/11/19: CBC: Cleanup of coal slurry spill into Athabasca ordered by province
- 2013/11/15: MiningWatch: Spilled Coal Slurry Not Inert But Laced With Arsenic Toxic Metals and Carcinogenic PAHs
Data Shines Light on Efforts to Keep Public in the Dark and Downplay Impacts of Massive Spill
While in la Belle Province:
- 2013/11/20: CBC: Greenpeace activists face mischief charges after scaling Biosphère
Activists demand Canadian government help protesters charged with hooliganism in Russia
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
- 2013/11/23: CBC: Energy sector key to economy, poll suggests — Economic benefits driving public support for pipelines, Harris-Decima suggests
A new poll suggests a broad cross-section of Canadians see the oil and gas sector as vitally important to the national economy, an attitude that in turn appears to be driving up support for pipeline construction. Almost nine out of 10 respondents to the Harris-Decima poll, 87 per cent, said they believe oil and gas development is economically important, while a clear majority — 53 per cent — ranked the sector as the most important in Canada.
- 2013/11/18: DeSmogBlog: Canadians Losing Confidence in Governments on Climate Says New Poll
- 2013/11/17: PunditsGuide: Keystone XL, the new PC party, and the Nov 25 federal by-elections
And on the American political front:
- 2013/11/23: TP:JR: New Mexico Regulators Deal A Blow To State's Renewable Energy Law
- 2013/11/22: SlashDot: A War Over Solar Power Is Raging Within the GOP
- 2013/11/22: Grist: This Ohio lawmaker thinks you're an enviro-socialist rent-seeker
- 2013/11/22: Wonkette: Pals Of Oil & Gas Industry Will Rescue Texas Kids From Lies Of Environmental Science Textbooks, As Soon As They Find Some
- 2013/11/22: ScienceInsider: Science Museum Declines to Show Climate Change Film
- 2013/11/22: UCSUSA:B: North Carolina Museum Bans Screening of Film "Shored Up" – Is the Political Climate a Factor?
- 2013/11/20: Grist: Washington's GMO labeling flop, two weeks later: What it means
- 2013/11/19: RTCC: Almost 80% of US citizens believe climate change is man-made
- 2013/11/19: Grist: Piles of tar-sands waste in Chicago are pissing people off
- 2013/11/19: Yale360: How Industrial Agriculture Has Thwarted Factory Farm Reforms
In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Robert Martin, co-author of a recent study on industrial farm animal production, explains how a powerful and intransigent agriculture lobby has successfully fought off attempts to reduce the harmful environmental and health impacts of mass livestock production.
- 2013/11/18: Grist: California and Illinois release draft fracking rules, and California's are better
- 2013/11/18: al Jazeera: No food for the poor: Malthus and Republican ideologues
Motivating the poor through hunger has a long and sordid history.
- 2013/11/18: TP:JR: Wyoming Council Rejects Residents' Protests Of Underground Coal Gasification Plant
- 2013/11/18: PSinclair: Arizona's Solar Fee – Two Forward, one back?
- 2013/11/18: RNE: Arizona regulators vote to keep solar revolution going
The Keystone XL wheel grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:
- 2013/11/23: CDreams: US Court Sets 'Dangerous Precedent' in Pipeline Ruling — Halt on pipeline set to replace Keystone XL northern half denied
- 2013/11/22: DeSmogBlog: US Court Denies Halt on Pipeline Set to Replace Keystone XL Northern Half
- 2013/11/20: BBerg: Keystone Foes Seek to Thwart Oil Sands Exports by Rail
- 2013/11/19: Reuters: TransCanada boosts Keystone XL cost estimate by $100 mln
- 2013/11/19: CBC: TransCanada warns Keystone XL denial would mean more oil by rail
Rail loading capacity in Alberta is expected to double to 800,000 barrels per day, says executive
- 2013/11/18: DeSmogBlog: George W. Bush on Keystone XL: "Build the Damn Thing"
The Mayflower oil spill and its ramifications just keep dragging on:
- 2013/11/19: KAIT8: Oil spill damages exceed $70 million, Exxon says
The GOP War on Women continues. See also:
- 2013/11/22: WSWS: US Supreme Court refuses to block Texas anti-abortion law…
- 2013/11/19: ACLU: Albuquerque Voters Stand Up for Safe and Legal Abortion
- 2013/11/19: ACLU: Supreme Court Refuses to Block Texas Abortion Law
- 2013/11/19: CSM: Texas abortion law stands: Supreme Court splits 5-4 on hearing the case
- 2013/11/20: IndiaTimes: US Supreme court upholds new Texas abortion law
Houston: A divided US Supreme Court has refused to block implementation of a controversial law limiting abortions in Texas that will force a third of clinics in America's second-largest state to stop performing the procedure. The court voted 5-4 in favour of a provision requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
The impacts of the sequestration are starting to come home:
- 2013/11/20: NatureN: Budget crunch hits Keeling's curves
Scientist struggles to maintain long-standing carbon dioxide record and more recent atmospheric-oxygen monitor.
- 2013/11/20: UCSUSA:B: So Nine Nobel Laureates Walk Into the Swedish Embassy…
At long and dear last, the rules have changed in the Senate:
- 2013/11/22: WSWS: US Senate limits filibuster power
The United States Senate voted on Thursday to limit the use of the filibuster, ending, for most presidential nominees to courts and executive agencies, a longstanding requirement that the upper legislative chamber obtain a 60-vote supermajority to end debate. Nominees to the Supreme Court will be excluded from the rule change.
- 2013/11/22: Grist: Filibuster demolition could clear the air for greener rulings
- 2013/11/21: NatureNB: US Senate goes 'nuclear' on delayed nominations
- 2013/11/21: BBC: Obama supports Senate rule change to curb filibusters
- 2013/11/21: CBC: Democrats vote to limit 'unprecedented' filibusters — Most far-reaching change since 1975
Senate Democrats eased the way for swift approval of U.S. President Barack Obama's current and future nominees on Thursday, voting unilaterally to overturn decades of Senate precedent and undermine Republicans' ability to block final votes. The 52-48 vote to undercut venerable filibuster rules on presidential appointees capped more than a decade of struggle in which presidents of both parties complained about delays in confirming appointees, particularly to the federal courts. At the White House, Obama applauded the vote. He said Republicans had used delaying tactics "as a reckless and relentless tool to grind all business to a halt." "And that's not what our founders intended. And it's certainly not what our country needs right now," the president said.
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2013/11/21: FuelFix: Feds order five companies to halt offshore work
The federal government has ordered five companies to halt offshore oil and gas operations, after they failed to give regulators an audit of safety plans newly required since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
- 2013/11/21: NatureNB: US ocean drilling ship [JOIDES Resolution] gets a new lease on life
- 2013/11/19: SciAm:PI: Why the EPA revised the Renewable Fuel Standards
- 2013/11/18: KSJT: An AP investigation finds Washington's ethanol policy deeply flawed
- 2013/11/18: TP:JR: The Obama Administration Just Gave Nine Tribal Nations $7 Million To Fund Clean Energy Projects
- 2013/11/18: FuelFix: Feds push back timeline for [Arctic and] offshore drilling rules
- 2013/11/18: Grist: Obama admin pisses off ethanol industry, pleases both oil industry and enviros
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2013/11/22: RT: US House approves $5,000 fee for official drilling protests, less federal authority over fracking
- 2013/11/21: TheCanadian: US House passes bill to speed up oil and gas fracking
- 2013/11/21: TP:JR: House Passes Bills To Fine Drilling Protesters, Squelch Federal Oversight Of Fracking
- 2013/11/21: Grist: The three anti-environmental bills that are wasting Congress' time
- 2013/11/21: DeSmogBlog: U.S. House Republicans Make It Clear That They Hate Renewable Energy
- 2013/11/20: TheHill:FA: House cuts green energy permitting funds from energy bill
- 2013/11/20: FuelFix: House panel advances plan to pare border-crossing pipeline reviews
- 2013/11/20: TheHill:FA: House votes to block federal fracking rules
- 2013/11/19: CCP: Who Represents the Illinois Town Just Razed by a November Tornado? Climate change denier, Tea Party drone Aaron Schock
- 2013/11/19: TP:JR: House Plans To Roadblock Federal Fracking Oversight On Wednesday
The federal government would have no authority over hydraulic fracturing in states that have their own fracking laws, if legislation set to be heard by the House this week is passed into law. On Wednesday, lawmakers will consider HR 2728, the Protecting States' Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act. Proposed by Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX), the bill would made fracking a states-only game.
- 2013/11/17: Grist: Ed Markey's first Senate bill aims to ramp up renewables
- 2013/11/17: DeSmogBlog: U.S. House Prepares Early Christmas Gift To Natural Gas Industry
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2013/11/22: DeSmogBlog: Report: Gas Industry's Campaign Donations Reach Record Levels
- 2013/11/21: Grist: These members of Congress are bankrolled by the fracking industry
- 2013/11/20: UCSUSA:B: New CREW Report on Fracking Industry Contributions to Congressional Candidates
- 2013/11/20: TP:JR: Heritage, Koch Brothers Pressure Lawmakers To Support Fracking Oversight Bill
- 2013/11/20: DeSmogBlog: Fracking Lobby ANGA's Tax Forms: Big Bucks to Media Outlets, "Other ALECs"
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2013/11/22: Resilience: Progress with roots
Despite extremely negative circumstances, the Basque People have been able to implement a significant process of positive socio-economic transformation. How was this achieved?
- 2013/11/21: DemNow: "We Have to Consume Less": Scientists Call For Radical Economic Overhaul to Avert Climate Crisis
- 2013/11/20: FergusB: It's amazing what we have in common; wanna live like common people?
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Make no mistake: Zoe's law is an assault on women's reproductive rights
It's not a coincidence that those who design 'foetal personhood' bills are often associated with anti-abortion beliefs. Australian women have to fight back
- 2013/11/21: ABC(Au): Zoe's Law to protect foetuses passes NSW Lower House
[…] MPs were given a conscience vote on the legislation, which would apply to foetuses that have reached 20 weeks gestation or weigh at least 400 grams.
How do the corporate media measure up?
- 2013/11/22: TiMRC: The unbelievable Andrew Bolt
- 2013/11/21: HuffPo: Something Is Rotten at the New York Times by Michael E. Mann
Wikipedia is having to deal with a PR firm whose business plan is propagandizing on Wikipedia:
- 2013/11/19: ArsTechnica: Wikipedia wants PR firm to stop paid editing services, hints at lawsuit — Wiki-PR apparently created new articles at prices up to $1,000, plus fees
- 2013/11/21: Guardian(UK): Wikipedia sends cease-and-desist letter to PR firm offering paid edits to site
Online encyclopaedia bans Wiki PR from editing its clients' entries via 'sockpuppet' accounts
- 2013/11/21: RT: Wikipedia fights back against PR firm who edited site for clients
While activists search for effective communication techniques:
- 2013/11/20: DARP: [link to 525k pdf] Report on Digital Activism and Non-Violent Conflict
- 2013/11/20: UW: Study shines light on what makes digital activism effective
Here is something for your library:
- 2013/11/22: SkS: Global warming and oceans, a 21st century perspective by John Abraham
[Book Review] _Ocean Circulation and Climate, Volume 103, Second Edition: A 21st century perspective_ by Gerold Siedler (Editor), Stephen M. Griffies (Editor), John Gould (Editor), John A. Church (Editor)
- 2013/11/19: GreenGrok: The Art of Connecting to the Other
[Book Plug] _Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit_ by Daniel Quinn
- 2013/11/22: CSW: "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars" — Now in paperback, highly recommended
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): [Book Review] _Ocean of Life: How our Seas are Changing_ by Callum Roberts
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2013/11/24: WottsUWTB: IPCC WG1 video release
- 2013/11/24: Grist: Explained in 90 seconds: Breaking the carbon budget
- 2013/11/23: TreeHugger: In-depth LED bulb reviews and teardowns: More than you ever wanted to know about LEDs… (videos)
- 2013/11/22: CleanTechnica: Welcome To The Energiewende — The Movie
- 2013/11/22: P3: Climate Change – The state of the science — A summary of the IPCC report in 4 minutes
- 2013/11/22: GLaden: Removing the fuel rods at Fukushima: Video
- 2013/11/22: V V: IPCC videos on the working groups The Physical Science Basis and Extremes
- 2013/11/18: ERabett: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on the Costs of Climate Change
- 2013/11/19: LoE: Greedy Lying Bar Stewards guilty of crimes against humanity
As for podcasts:
- 2013/11/23: CBC:Q&Q: #3) Arctic Sea Ice Loss Recorded in Algae #4) Global Warming Makes Mammals Shrink
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2013/11/23: CDreams: US Court Sets 'Dangerous Precedent' in Pipeline Ruling — Halt on pipeline set to replace Keystone XL northern half denied
- 2013/11/22: DeSmogBlog: US Court Denies Halt on Pipeline Set to Replace Keystone XL Northern Half
- 2013/11/22: NatureNB: Taiwan scientist's findings did not constitute defamation
- 2013/11/20: Grist: Nuclear industry scores a big win, but still no solution for nuclear waste [courts]
- 2013/11/20: RNE: French NIMBYs get wind turbines removed, shift focus back to nuclear
- 2013/11/20: RT: Energy Dept. told to halt customer fee for nuclear waste disposal program that doesn't exist
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday the US Energy Department must cease collecting fees of around $750 million a year from nuclear energy customers given the waste disposal program they're funding doesn't even exist.
- 2013/11/18: PLNA: U.S. Court Authorizes Ecuador to Use Information on Chevron
It looks like this BP trial over the Gulf oil spill is going to take a long while:
- 2013/11/22: TP:JR: BP Wants To Speed Up 'Toxic Soup' Lawsuit, Says Injury Claims Are 'Clogging' The Court
- 2013/11/18: Platts: BP publishes Gulf environmental data as spill liability ruling looms
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
- 2013/11/23: PeakEnergy: Costa Rica to build 3 geothermal electricity plants with Japanese funding
- 2013/11/22: Guardian(UK): Cleaner energy: a revolution that ordinary people can drive [Flannery]
- 2013/11/22: Eureka: Copper promises cheaper, sturdier fuel cells
Copper nanowires [fused in a see-through film] offer an efficient, inexpensive approach to [H2O splitting] solar energy harvesting
- 2013/11/21: PeakEnergy: Pentland Firth: building the multi-array dream
- 2013/11/21: BBC: Per Lindstrand plans inflatable 1km solar chimney
Plans for a 1km (3,280ft) inflatable solar chimney have been outlined by a leading balloon specialist.
- 2013/11/19: TheEngineer(UK): Per Lindstrand plans 1km-high inflatable solar energy chimney
- 2013/11/19: UCSUSA:B: All Eyes on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles at the LA Auto Show
- 2013/11/19: CCurrents: Surviving Climate Change: Is A Green Energy Revolution On The Global Agenda? by Michael T. Klare
- 2013/11/19: Asia Times: Power to the people by Michael T Klare
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Are we witnessing the start of a global green revolution? [Klare]
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Microgeneration is the way ahead
- 2013/11/17: Resilience: Will the real International Energy Agency please stand up?
What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?
- 2013/11/23: Lenz: Solar Costs Known, Nuclear Costs Unknown
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifers for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2013/11/22: Grist: Study reveals how badly frackers lie about jobs
- 2013/11/22: Grist: Fracking boom is fueling a plastics boom
- 2013/11/18: Grist: California and Illinois release draft fracking rules, and California's are better
- 2013/11/18: Guardian(UK): Botswana faces questions over licences for fracking companies in Kalahari
- 2013/11/18: PeakEnergy: North Dakota's Salty Fracked Wells Drink More Water to Keep Oil Flowing
- 2013/11/17: Grist: Word games are misleading the American public about fracking
- 2013/11/16: BND: Will 'fracking' bring jobs or an environmental nightmare to Illinois?
On the coal front:
- 2013/11/18: Grist: Eight more U.S. coal generators bite the dust
- 2013/11/18: UCSUSA:B: TVA Pulls the Plug on More Coal Plants; Others Will Surely Follow
- 2013/11/18: TreeHugger: Coal can be a part of the climate solution, with one small caveat…
On the gas and oil front:
- 2013/11/22: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Dated Brent Spot….111.05
WTI Cushing Spot…..94.84
- 2013/11/21: Grist: BP sends more drilling rigs to the Gulf of Mexico than ever before
- 2013/11/21: TP:JR: Shell Oil Self-Imposes Carbon Pollution Tax High Enough To Crash Coal, Erase Natural Gas's Value-Add
In the gas and oil corps:
- 2013/11/20: PeakEnergy: The World's Biggest Oil Companies, 2013
Ships and boats and trains — How to tranport the stuff?
- 2013/11/20: JournalSentinel: Group raises concern with tar sands oil shipments on the Great Lakes
- 2013/11/20: BBerg: Keystone Foes Seek to Thwart Oil Sands Exports by Rail
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2013/11/20: UCSD:Scripps: Oceanography Researchers Engineer Breakthrough for [Algae] Biofuel Production
- 2013/11/19: UCSUSA:B: The EPA and Biofuels: Smart Goals, but an Outdated Roadmap
- 2013/11/18: KSJT: An AP investigation finds Washington's ethanol policy deeply flawed
- 2013/11/18: GreenGrok: Biofuels and Climate Change: Pulpwood to the Rescue?
The answer my friend…
- 2013/11/22: CleanTechnica: Siemens Awarded Two Offshore Wind Contracts Totaling 582 MW – Gode Wind 1 & 2 neat the North Sea island of Juist
- 2013/11/22: CleanTechnica: Alstom Completes World's Largest Offshore Wind Turbine [6-MW Haliade 150]
- 2013/11/22: BBC: US firm Duke Energy pays out over wind farm eagle deaths
A huge US energy supplier has agreed to pay out $1m (£620,000) over the deaths of golden eagles at two wind farms. Duke Energy Renewables agreed to the sum after pleading guilty to charges over the deaths of 14 eagles in the past three years at the Wyoming site.
- 2013/11/18: RealEconomics: Japan and wind power
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2013/11/22: BPA: DIY Solar Powered Tractors
- 2013/11/23: CleanTechnica: Solar Contract Templates Developed By NREL & Partners
- 2013/11/22: SciAm:PI: Photo Friday: Solar Power in Japan
- 2013/11/22: CleanTechnica: South Africa's First Utility-Scale Solar [PV] Plant Goes Online [75 MW]
- 2013/11/22: CleanTechnica: Solar Project Interconnection Expedited & Costs Cut With New Rule, SEIA Applauds
- 2013/11/21: CleanTechnica: "Lowest-Cost PV Energy On The Market" – Concentrated PV From Cogenra
Cogenra has developed a new concentrated photovoltaic solar receiver, called the T14, which can reportedly achieve a system cost of 50 cents per watt. It achieves a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) — cost of electricity with everything factored in — up to 20% lower than conventional PV systems.
- 2013/11/20: Grist: How one small community is going big on solar – Frytown in Iowa
- 2013/11/20: PeakEnergy: [US] Solar Thermal Power to Double in 2013
- 2013/11/20: RUBochum: Bio-based solar cell — RUB researchers generate electricity rather than biomass with photosynthetic proteins
- 2013/11/19: CleanTechnica: GTM Research Predict Global PV Prices To Rise During 2014
- 2013/11/18: TP:JR: U.S. Firm's $100 Million Investment Shows How Solar Energy Is Soaring In Japan
- 2013/11/18: TreeHugger: Doh! Most solar panels are facing the wrong way, new study shows
- 2013/11/18: UIllinois: Refined materials provide booster shot for solar energy conversion
- 2013/11/18: CleanTechnica: China Forecast To Install Even More Solar Than Previously Thought
- 2013/11/18: PSinclair: Arizona's Solar Fee – Two Forward, one back?
- 2013/11/18: RNE: Arizona regulators vote to keep solar revolution going
- 2013/11/17: Eureka: 2 for 1 in solar power
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2013/11/22: NBF: Construction underway of second Vogtle AP1000 [in Georgia, USA]
- 2013/11/22: NBF: Russia unveils plan for 21 new nuclear reactors by 2030 and includes two BN-1200 sodium cooled fast reactors
- 2013/11/19: NYT: Unavoidable Answer for the Problem of Climate Change
- 2013/11/19: EneNews: Tornado hits U.S. nuclear facility – Uranium enrichment building damaged – Parts of cooling towers destroyed…
- 2013/11/18: APR: South Korea: Restarts begin; nuclear energy use estimate rises
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2013/11/19: PSinclair: Have You Heard the One About the Polish Electrical Grid?
- 2013/11/18: RNE: Poland builds electronic wall to keep out German renewables
Poland, the host of the climate change negotiations, is going to extreme lengths to protect its coal-fired electricity industry – making sudden changes to renewable energy support schemes, and even going so far as erecting a form of electronic barrier to keep renewable energy from neighbouring Germany out of its grid. The move appears to have been made with the sole intention of protecting the economic interests of its incumbent, centralised and heavily coal reliant grid. As Germany roars towards a decentralised, renewables based grid, Poland appears determined to stick to the past. The contrast between the two countries could not be starker. The move to install equipment knows as phase-shifters on transmission links between Poland and Germany is designed to give the Polish grid operator the power to block excess renewables output from Germany entering the Polish grid. As in Germany, a large amount of renewable energy causes wholesale prices to come down, and profits to fall.
How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?
- 2013/11/21: WSWS: German energy firm RWE to cut 6,700 jobs
- 2013/11/18: TheConversation: What Australia could learn from a US energy uprising
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2013/11/20: CSM: Hydrogen fuel cars in showrooms starting 2014
- 2013/11/20: CSM: We will sell a fuel cell car by 2015: Toyota
- 2013/11/20: TreeHugger: Next-gen electric scooter is like a two-wheeled pickup truck
- 2013/11/20: ERabett:BSD: $200 million hydrogen highway probably won't work and is a good idea
- 2013/11/19: TP:JR: Hyundai Will Unveil A Hydrogen Car. What Does That Mean?
As for Energy Storage:
- 2013/11/21: NBF: Solid Energy touts lithium metal electrodes to safely boost lithium ion battery energy density by up to 40% and could lower costs by half to about $130 per kilowatt hour
- 2013/11/21: RNE: CSIRO in new alliance to advance home-grown energy storage technology
- 2013/11/20: NBF: Lithum Sulfur batteries good for 1500 charges are good enough for electric cars
- 2013/11/20: CleanTechnica: Graphene At Play In New 300-Mile EV Battery
- 2013/11/20: Eureka: Solar-powered battery woven into fabric overcomes hurdle for 'wearable electronics'
- 2013/11/19: RNE: The battery storage system that could close down coal power
- 2013/11/18: TreeHugger: Self-healing electrodes could make lithium-ion batteries last 10 times longer
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2013/11/19: Guardian(UK): BHP Billiton: climate change leader or laggard?
Australian mining firm, under fire for supporting carbon tax abolition, can either join the leaders or stay a fossil fuel dinosaur, writes Melini Mehra
Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:
- 2013/11/21: PSinclair: SuperStorms have Flood Insurance Rates Skyrocketing
- 2013/11/20: DD: Losses from extreme weather rise to $200 billion a year over past decade
What do we have in (weekly) lists?
- 2013/11/23: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #47B by John Hartz
- 2013/11/22: BPA: Agriculture News Links
- 2013/11/20: BPA: Agriculture News Links
- 2013/11/19: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #47A by John Hartz
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.
- 2013/11/20: HotWhopper: It's utter nutter day at the WUWT nuttery, now with the Potty Peer
- 2013/11/21: al Jazeera: Is BP 'trolling' its Facebook critics?
Has BP hired internet "trolls" to threaten critics of its handling of the 2010 oil disaster?
- 2013/11/21: CSW: Pielke affirms IPCC's authority but ignores its evidence on extreme weather
- 2013/11/23: PSinclair: This Does Not in Any Way Imply That All Climate Deniers Are Obnoxious Blowhards
- 2013/11/23: QuarkSoup: Judith Curry's Version of Denialism
- 2013/11/17: V V: On the reactions to the doubling of the recent temperature trend by Curry, Watts and Lucia
- 2013/11/17: CCP: Top Expert on Energy Subsidies Demolishes Bjorn Lomborg's Disinformation
This week in intimidation:
- 2013/11/22: TMoS: Climate Scientists Getting Ready to Rumble?
- 2013/11/21: CCP: American Geophysical Union adds legal counseling to its Fall Meeting agenda, citing scientists' need to defend against increasing attacks on research, correspondence and public statements
- 2013/11/21: TP:JR: Why Would A Climate Scientist Need A Quick Course In Legal Self-Defense?
- 2013/11/18: QuarkSoup: AGU Mtg: One-on-One Availability With an Attorney
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
- 2013/11/18: RTCC: Walmart accused of 'greenwashing' over clean energy claims
So why is nothing getting done?
- 2013/11/18: Resilience: Social Inertia in the face of Climate Change
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2013/11/08: CultureFutures: Australia: Climate change shapes new art [misc]
- 2013/11/21: RTCC: Climate Action Tracker: world on course for 3.7C warming by 2100
- 2013/11/22: Stoat: Mann vs Muller
- 2013/11/22: CCurrents: Fear In A Handful Of Dust: The Sacred Vehemence Of Imagination In A Soulless Age by Phil Rockstroh
- 2013/11/21: QuarkSoup: "Climate scientists are the opposites of weathermen"
- 2013/11/18: TreeHugger: Climate change is driving weather off the charts
- 2013/11/17: CCurrents: Consumers Drive Climate Crisis
- 2013/11/17: CSW: Weekend reading: Supertyphoon Haiyan, environmental revolt, Red state public opinion
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- Global Carbon Atlas
- The Gaia Foundation
- The African Biodiversity Network
- Digital Activism Research Project — investigating the global impact of digital media on political contention
- TiMRC: Truth In Media Resource Centre
- Sage Glass
- Carbon Majors – Attributing carbon emmissions to extractors
- Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative
- BlueSkiesResearch – Julia Hargreaves & James Annan
- The Majuro Declaration
- TDC: Daily Climate
- The Carbon Capture Report
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.
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.
"In a future that is as unavoidable as it will be unwelcome, survival and sanity may depend upon our ability to cherish rather than to disparage the concept of human dignity." -William Catton Jr.
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Last modified November 24, 2013