Another Week of GW News, August 30, 2009

[sorry to be late this week, folks. I am in Australia on business and it took 34 hours to get here and I only got internet access where I am staying just now. Better late than never, no?]

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

August 30, 2009

• Chuckle, Pachauri - 350, Solar Cycle Climate Link, Adaptation Costs, Bonner, API, WCC, Himalayan Conference
• Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica, Methane, WMO Forecasts, Late Comments
• Food Crisis, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, C&O Cycles, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels
• Impacts, Forests, Corals, Climate Refugees, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Misc. Science, Leggett, Pielke
• Copenhagen, UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, International Politics, Security, Law & Activism
• America, Obama, Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Cars, Business, Greenwashing
• Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Take a deep breath & start with a smile:

• 2009/08/26: uComics: (cartoon - Danziger) Kennedy
• 2009/08/24: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) Global War Against Global Warming

  In case you are feeling jaded:

• 2009/08/24: APOD: Morning Glory Clouds Over Australia

  IPCC chief, Rajendra Pachauri, surprised a lot of people this week by endorsing the 350ppm CO2 target:

• 2009/08/26: NatureTGB: Pachauri endorses 350ppm CO2 target
• 2009/08/25: Yahoo: UN scientist backs '350' target for CO2 reduction
• 2009/08/26: TerraDaily: Top UN climate scientist backs ambitious CO2 cuts
• 2009/08/25: EnergyBulletin: A breakthrough moment: IPCC's Dr. Pachauri supports 350 target
• 2009/08/25: ClimateP: Rajendra Pachauri endorses 350 ppm, not as IPCC chair but "as a human being"
• 2009/08/25: Grist: Top U.N. climate scientist backs big CO2 cuts, 350-ppm goal
• 2009/08/25: Grist: Pachauri's call for 350 ppm is breakthrough moment for climate movement
• 2009/08/25: TreeHugger: IPCC Chairman Personally Backs 350ppm CO2 Targets, Holding Temperature Rise to 1.5°C
• 2009/08/25: Yahoo: UN scientist [Rajendra Pachauri] backs '350' target for CO2 reduction
  The UN's top climate scientist has, for the first time, backed ambitious goals for slashing greenhouse gas emissions that many climate negotiators say are beyond reach. "As chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), I cannot take a position because we do not make recommendations," Pachauri told AFP when asked if he supported poorer nations calling for atmospheric CO2 levels to be held below 350 parts per million (ppm). "But as a human being I am fully supportive of that goal. What is happening, and what is likely to happen, convinces me that the world must be really ambitious and very determined at moving toward a 350 target," he said by telephone from New Delhi. In its benchmark 2007 report, the IPCC said that the key for preventing dangerous global warming was to keep CO2 concentrations below 450 ppm.

A connection between the solar cycle, the stratosphere and the ocean has been posited:

• 2009/08/27: Eureka: Connections among solar cycle, stratosphere and ocean discovered -- Work in sync to generate periodic global weather patterns
• 2009/08/28: BBC: Sunspots linked to Pacific rain
  A study has shown how sunspots could affect climate in the Pacific. Writing in the journal Science, the international team detailed how the 11-year sunspot cycle might influence the amount of rain falling on the ocean. It is hoped the findings will lead to better models for regional climate predictions. The authors emphasised the findings "cannot be used to explain recent global warming because of the trend over the past 30 years".
• 2009/08/27: NatureN: Sunspots stir oceans -- Variations in the Sun's brightness may have a big role in Pacific precipitation
• 2009/08/27: Eureka: Scientists uncover solar cycle, stratosphere and ocean connections

  The IIED has come up with a costing of adaptation far above the UN's:

• 2009/08/28: NatureCF: The high cost of adaptation
• 2009/08/27: BBC: Protecting societies against the impacts of climate change will be much more expensive than previously believed, according to a new analysis
• 2009/08/27: NatureN: Climate change exacts a high price -- Costs of adapting to a warming world could be much greater than expected
• 2009/08/27: MongaBay: Cost of climate change adaptation to be 2-3 times higher than current estimates
• 2009/08/27: TreeHugger: Costs of Adapting to Climate Change Double-to-Triple UN Estimates, New Report Says

  The Bonner & Assoc scandal continues to play out:

• 2009/08/29: CDP: Perriello, area groups contradict lobbying firm
• 2009/08/28: Grist: Coal lobby claims their grassroots support is "more organic" than green groups'
• 2009/08/29: NYT: Firm [Bonner] Wants U.S. Inquiry in Lobby Case
• 2009/08/28: DeSmogBlog: Bonner & Associates Coached Employees To Lie To Generate Letters to Congress - Will Congress Reign In Such Astroturf?
• 2009/08/28: DeSmogBlog: Bonner & Associates Paid Bonus to Letter Forger Before Firing Him
• 2009/08/24: PRWatch: More Pollution of the Climate Debate
• 2009/08/28: DeSmogBlog: Bonner & Associates Spin Machine in Full Gear To Defend Sullied Brand
• 2009/08/28: DeSmogBlog: Maddow on Bonner and Adfero's Astroturfing for Coal
• 2009/08/27: DeSmogBlog: Bonner's Dishonest Tactics Date Back a Decade Plus
• 2009/08/27: DeSmogBlog: Astroturf PR firm also a major Republican Party Player
• 2009/08/26: HuffPo: Bonner & Associates: The Long and Undemocratic History of Astroturfing

  And the follow-on by big oil:

• 2009/08/29: AlterNet: Big Oil Gets in on Right-Wing Astroturf Game
• 2009/08/25: Grist: GOP team at American Energy Alliance runs 'Energy Town Hall' oil bus tour
• 2009/08/24: Grist: Grown up talk from Big Oil -- This "Energy Citizen" also wants a word
• 2009/08/24: TreeHugger: Ex-Enron Speechwriter [B. Bradley] Starts New Anti-Climate Action Group
• 2009/08/24: DeSmogBlog: Lobbyists for Big Oil Organizing Most "Grassroots" 'Energy Citizens' Rallies

  The World Climate Conference is coming up next week in Geneva:

• 2009/08/30: PhysOrg: UN meeting: help nations adapt to global warming [WCC]
• 2009/08/30: NYT: UN Meeting: Help Nations Adapt to Global Warming [WCC]
• 2009/08/28: NatureCF: World Climate Conference-3: Towards Climate Prediction
• 2009/08/28: EarthTimes: Preview: Climate change is here - time to adapt, UN says
  Geneva - The United Nations in Geneva will host a five-day climate conference starting Monday that will not be aimed at cutting emissions but focused on adapting to changes in the environment that will make life on earth very different. The UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a technical and scientific outfit, hopes to walk away from the conference with a clear plan for a global information network to supply politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats the climate data they need, when they need it. "The problem is that much information on the climate is not used properly," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said. "It's time to link technology and science with decision makers," said the weather expert. The reality, Jarraud believes, is that the climate has already changed and will continue to do so. No matter what happens in Copenhagen later this year, when diplomats meet to try and hammer out an over-arching climate accord on harmful emissions, adaptation - scientists now say - will still be necessary.
• 2009/08/27: NOAANews: NOAA Administrator to Lead U.S. Delegation to World Climate Conference-3 [Aug.31 - Sept.4 in Geneva, Switzerland] -- Looking Ahead to 'A Clear Chance to Shape Our Future'

  And the Himalayan nations are to hold climate talks:

• 2009/08/28: TerraDaily: Himalayan nations to hold first climate talks
• 2009/08/28: Google:AFP: Himalayan nations to hold first climate talks

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2009/08/29: CCP: G. C. Sewant, Arctic Sunrise at the Helheim Glacier: Greenland's Shrinking Glaciers
• 2009/08/28: Tamino: Yes, Virginia, the Arctic is warming ... fast
• 2009/08/24: CNN: Sailing the Northwest Passage: Ice floes and Inuit culture
  Crew of Silent Sound have passed halfway mark on trip through Northwest Passage - Heavy ice threatens to block progress as melt hasn't been as much as predicted - Changing climate has impacted traditional Inuit hunting practices
• 2009/08/26: Eureka: International Greenland ice coring effort sets new drilling record in 2009
  Ancient ice cores expected to help scientists assess risks of abrupt climate change in future
• 2009/08/24: KSJT: AP: 2 pieces on Far North's climate and geochemical change. Ocean's going acid, while beetles and fire take bigger bite from the forest
• 2009/08/24: Eureka: Searching for an interglacial on Greenland -- The first season of the international ice core drilling project NEEM completed
• 2009/08/23: MoD: Greenpeace gets it right

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2009/08/28: Telegraph(UK): [Russia Now] Escalating tensions over hunt for oil and gas in the Arctic
• 2009/08/27: StatesmanJournal: Arctic Shipping: Stormy seas or smooth sailing

  While in Antarctica:

• 2009/08/28: PhysOrg: Computer model documents the history of the West Antarctic ice sheet
• 2009/08/25: PhysOrg: Map Characterizes Active Lakes Below Antarctic Ice (w/ Video)

  Damocles sword is still up there:

• 2009/08/24: Tamino: Methane North and South
• 2009/08/23: Tamino: Sea Floor Gas
• 2009/08/27: EurActiv: Methane seepage heightens pressure for climate treaty
  Evidence that methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas, is escaping from the warming Arctic seabed makes securing a new international agreement to slash global-warming gas emissions even more urgent, scientists warn.
• 2009/08/24: NOAANews: NOAA, Coast Guard Hunt for Alaska Methane, Carbon Dioxide Sources
  Recent observations have suggested that the air above Alaska may already hold the first signs of a regional increase in greenhouse gas emissions that could contribute to climate change around the globe. To learn more about the region's emissions, NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., has teamed up with the U.S. Coast Guard at Kodiak Island. The two partners are flying NOAA air-sampling devices aboard a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft conducting flights over the state through November. Scientists will search for natural sources of methane and carbon dioxide -- the two most important heat-trapping gases -- as well as methane sources from human activities, such as oil drilling in Prudhoe Bay. Gathered over three seasons, the data will help NOAA map out natural emissions sites, estimate their outflow, and set benchmarks for future changes in a warming world.

The WMO announced this week that the past was no longer a reliable guide in weather forecasting:

• 2009/08/26: UNR: WMO: climate change breaking rules of weather prediction
• 2009/08/26: UN: History no longer a good indicator for weather forecasts, says top UN official [WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud]
• 2009/08/26: Reuters: History can no longer guide farmers, investors: U.N.

  Late comment on the Alberta Clipper pipeline:

• 2009/08/29: TreeHugger: Here Come the Tar Sands [AClipper]
• 2009/08/26: G&M: Enbridge faces U.S. challenge to [Alberta Clipper] pipeline permit
• 2009/08/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The New Tar Sands Oil Pipeline: A Junkie's Last Fix

  Late coverage of World Water Week:

• 2009/08/25: EurActiv: Water experts pour on pressure for Copenhagen deal
  At the World Water Week conference, held last week (16-22 August) in Sweden, political leaders and experts called for water to be a key part of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.

Late comment on the APA:

• 2009/08/23: SolveClimate: Psychologists Delve Into the Paradox of U.S. Concern but Inaction on Climate Change

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/08/30: TheNews(Pk): Climate change hits crop yields in Nepal
• 2009/08/30: Independent(UK): Millions facing famine in Ethiopia as rains fail
  International aid agencies fear that the levels of death and starvation last seen 24 years ago, are set to return to the Horn of Africa.
• 2009/08/20: FAO: FAO/WFP crop and food security assessment mission to Madagascar
• 2009/07/: FAO: Countries in crisis requiring external assistance (total: 30 countries)
• 2009/08/28: CBC: Climate change causing food shortages in Nepal
• 2009/08/28: CSW: Warming in the Heartland: Is the nation's "breadbasket" toast? -- Another preparedness challenge
• 2009/08/28: SciDaily: US Crop Yields Could Wilt In Heat
• 2009/08/28: BBC: Banana diseases hit African crops
  Food supplies in several African countries are under threat because two diseases are attacking bananas, food scientists have told the BBC. Crops are being damaged from Angola through to Uganda - including many areas where bananas are a staple food. Experts are urging farmers to use pesticides or change to a resistant variety of banana where possible. Scientists have been meeting in Tanzania to decide how to tackle the diseases, which are spread by insects.
• 2009/08/27: GG&G: Nonlinear Temperature Effects Indicate Severe Damages to U.S. Crop Yields Under Climate Change
• 2009/08/27: CalcRisk: Recession hitting Farms
• 2009/08/27: ProMedMail: Sudden death syndrome, soybean - USA
• 2009/08/25: CBC: Kenya faces starvation due to drought: UN
• 2009/08/25: UNDispatch: World Food Program sounds alarm on Kenya
• 2009/08/25: UN: Kenya: UN agency sounds alarm on dire food situation
• 2009/08/25: UN: Half of Somalia's population could go hungry, UN warns
• 2009/08/25: BBC: South Asia hit by sugar shortages
  A massive shortage in sugar stocks in India and Pakistan has led to soaring prices and consumer unrest. The Indian government has introduced strict limits on companies that stockpile sugar to check rising prices. Shortages led Pakistan's government to nearly double sugar prices causing public outrage ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan, which has now begun. The price of raw sugar worldwide has increased to its highest level since 1981, as supply concerns grow. [...] Global sugar prices have been pushed up by growing demand in Brazil for sugar to be turned into ethanol for vehicle fuel, and a sharp fall in production in India, the world's largest sugar consumer.
• 2009/08/20: Reuters: Cattle, crop losses mount in Texas drought

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/08/27: Tyee: Peak Oil? Urban Farms? Cuba's Been There, Done It -- What a BC gardener learned by visiting Havana.
  Last year all of us were afforded a frightening glimpse of how expensive fuel can trigger a global food crisis. And then, when zooming oil prices tumbled again (for now), causing food commodity prices to drop (for now), our news media moved on.
  
  But I didn't. I became interested in Cuba as an example of how to adapt when the next, similar crisis comes -- and stays.
• 2009/08/27: DotEarth: Giving Earth That Worn-Down Feeling
• 2009/08/27: TreeHugger: Rethinking Food Production For A World Of Eight Billion
• 2009/08/26: GreenGrok: CO2 Fertilization May Be a Mixed Blessing
• 2009/08/26: SciNow: Global Warming Warps Marine Food Webs
• 2009/08/26: NewScientist: Climate tipping point defined for US crop yields
• 2009/08/26: AlterNet: Inflammatory New Book Attacking Local Food Movement Has One Grain of Truth Buried Under Heaps of Manure
• 2009/08/25: NewScientist: Warmer seas mean more food for fish
• 2009/08/24: PhysOrg: U.S. Crop Yields Could Wilt in Heat
  Yields of three of the most important crops produced in the United States - corn, soybeans and cotton - are predicted to fall off a cliff if temperatures rise due to climate change.
• 2009/08/25: TreeHugger: US Corn, Cotton & Soybean Yields Could Decline Up To 82% Due to Climate Change
• 2009/08/24: NYT: A Farm on Every Floor [vertical farming]
• 2009/08/25: PeakEnergy: The Real Cost Of Cheap Food
• 2009/08/25: BBC: Ukraine's agricultural revolution -- In large swathes of the country fleets of ultra-modern combine harvesters are bringing in the harvest from new mega farms
• 2009/08/24: AlterNet: Desperate Food Industry Tries to Tar Michael Pollan and Organic Produce
• 2009/08/11: BizComm: Urban agriculture key to alleviating world hunger
• 2009/08/24: KSJT: NYTimes, Time Magazine: The way Americans grow food, and eat it, is cheap and pretty crazy

  In the Pacific, Jimena, Hilda, Ignacio, Vamco, and Krovanh blew around:

• 2009/08/29: BBerg: Jimena Strengthens to Hurricane South of Mexico, U.S. Says
• 2009/08/29: CBC: Jimena now a hurricane in the Pacific
• 2009/08/27: NASA: NASA's Satellite Imagery Sees Hilda Hit a Wall
• 2009/08/26: Eureka: NASA eyes Hilda's Hawaiian hangout -- south of the islands
• 2009/08/26: NASA: Ignacio May Get Some Company in the Eastern Pacific
• 2009/08/25: NASA: Vamco Still Holding Onto Typhoon Status in North Pacific
• 2009/08/24: PhysOrg: Satellite imagery shows Typhoon Vamco has a huge 45-mile wide eye

  In the Atlantic, Danny didn't do much, but got a lot of attention:

• 2009/08/29: ABC(US): Tropical Storm Danny is No More
• 2009/08/29: CBS: Danny Downgraded to Tropical Depression -- Storm Weakens but Dangerous Surf Still Expected on East Coast; Search Called Off for Boy Missing Off N.C.
• 2009/08/28: CNN: Danny could produce dangerous surf along East Coast
  Danny barely a tropical storm Friday, National Hurricane Center says - Advisory says storm warning may be possible for North Carolina - Danny is expected to become extratropical storm on Saturday
• 2009/08/27: Maribo: The path of Tropical Storm Danny
• 2009/08/29: Wunderground: Adieu to Danny
• 2009/08/28: Wunderground: Danny still weak
• 2009/08/27: Eureka: Tropical Storm Danny stars in a GOES Satellite movie
• 2009/08/28: CBC: Tropical storm Danny weakens in Atlantic
• 2009/08/27: CNN: Tropical Storm Danny strengthens in Atlantic
  Forecasters warn people from Carolinas to New England to monitor storm - Tropical Storm Danny expected to strengthen over next few days - Storm about 320 miles northeast of Nassau, Bahamas, around midday Thursday
• 2009/08/27: PhysOrg: NASA satellite and aircraft data see Danny's center reform farther north
• 2009/08/27: Wunderground: Danny disorganized, but generating strong winds
• 2009/08/27: CBC: Tropical storm Danny gains power
• 2009/08/26: Wunderground: Tropical Storm Danny not impressive yet
• 2009/08/26: NASA: NASA Sees Tropical Storm Danny Form, U.S. East Coast on Watch

  Post Typhoon Morakot, the numbers are slowly creeping from the missing to the dead column:

• 2009/08/28: UN: UN sends disaster assessment teams to Beijing and Taipei after typhoon [Morakot] strikes
• 2009/08/28: TerraDaily: Taiwan confirms 543 dead, 117 missing after typhoon
• 2009/08/26: CNN: Taiwan death toll 'higher than feared'
  At least 376 dead as a result of Typhoon Morakot; 254 still missing - Emergency services have also found 60 human limbs - Massive storm caused flooding, mud slides in remote regions - Taiwan President Ma says he accepts responsibility for slow typhoon response
• 2009/08/25: TerraDaily: Taiwan confirms 292 deaths, 385 missing from typhoon [Morakot]
• 2009/08/25: EarthTimes: Taiwan's typhoon [Morakot] death toll rises to 461, but more feared dead
• 2009/08/23: TerraDaily: Water project adds to Taiwan leader's typhoon [Morakot] woes

  Post Hurricane Bill coverage:

• 2009/08/25: CBC: Police warn post-hurricane [Bill] thrill-seekers
• 2009/08/24: CNN: Two die in hurricane-whipped surf
  Man died Saturday in surf off Florida - One of three people in Maine swept into Atlantic Ocean by wave dies - Bill downgraded to tropical storm, heads into Atlantic
• 2009/08/24: PhysOrg: NASA sees some strong thunderstorms in Bill's center as he drenches eastern Canada
• 2009/08/24: Wunderground: Bill is gone; Invest 92 pops up
• 2009/08/23: Wunderground: Bill brushes Massachusetts; Nova Scotia gets pounded
• 2009/08/24: NASA: NASA GOES Project Satellite Movie: Bill Heads North to Canada
• 2009/08/24: CBC: Tropical storm Bill soaks Newfoundland
• 2009/08/24: CBC: Nova Scotia 'lucky' after Hurricane Bill: EMO minister
• 2009/08/23: CBC: Hurricane Bill weakens on way to Newfoundland -- Tropical storm level expected early Monday

  Four year retrospectives of Katrina have been popping up:

• 2009/08/29: Guardian(UK): New Orleans's green dilemma
  Four years after Hurricane Katrina, residents are struggling to balance the costs and benefits of how they rebuild the city
• 2009/08/29: ClimateP: The lessons of Katrina: Global warming "adaptation" is a cruel euphemism -- and prevention is far, far cheaper
• 2009/08/28: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Hurricane Katrina 4 Years Later: Four Principles for Preparing for Climate Disasters
• 2009/08/29: CSM: What Katrina has wrought, four years later -- New Orleans will never be the same. Neither will Americans' view of government's role in disasters
• 2009/08/28: CNN: Clientele on the rise at Biloxi soup kitchen
  As the city recovers from Katrina, Loaves and Fishes sees more visitors - Clientele include the homeless, day laborers, out-of-luck gamblers - "I think we'll feel the effects of Katrina for a long time," mayor said - He expects to break ground on a $400 million infrastructure project in January
• 2009/08/28: ClimateP: The Storm of the Century (so far) [Katrina]
• 2009/08/28: Grist: White House announces Gulf restoration task force amid criticism of Army Corps
• 2009/08/28: CSW: New Orleans pumps unsafe on Katrina anniversary, report concludes: Army Corps preparedness cover-up?
• 2009/08/28: DVoice: Economic Hit Men and the Next Drowning of New Orleans -- Hurricane Bush Four Years Later, Part 2
• 2009/08/27: DM:SK: Are We Ready For The Next Katrina?
• 2009/08/26: Eureka: Return of business to New Orleans post-Katrina
• 2009/08/26: TP:WR: Neal Boortz: If New Orleans Is Rebuilt, The 'Debris That Katrina Chased Out' Will Return
• 2009/08/25: GPalast: Expert Fired Who Warned Levees Would Burst -- Hurricane George, Four Years Later
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Four years on, Katrina remains cursed by rumour, cliche, lies and racism
  Ordinary people mostly behaved well. Those in power panicked, spread fear and fiction, and showed eagerness to kill
• 2009/08/25: DVoice: Homeless and Struggling In New Orleans -- On the Fourth Anniversary of Katrina, New Orleans is Still Far From Recovery

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2009/08/26: PhysOrg: Tropical storms endure over wet land, fizzle over dry
• 2009/08/26: Eureka: Tropical storms endure over wet land, fizzle over dry
• 2009/08/25: PlanetArk: WSI maintains hurricane forecast for 2009
  Private weather forecaster WSI Corp said on Monday it still sees a quiet 2009 Atlantic hurricane season with conditions not conducive to an active year for violent storms. WSI's updated forecast predicted a season of 10 named storms, five hurricanes and two intense hurricanes of category 3 or greater, unchanged from its July forecast. In July, WSI cut its forecast from 11 named storms to 10.
• 2009/08/25: Wunderground: Disturbance 92L getting more organized; storm surge basics explained

  As for the Monsoon:

• 2009/08/24: GreenGrok: Monsoon Fails, India Suffers

  While on the GHG front:

• 2009/08/27: EnvFin: World's biggest firms must double pace of carbon cuts - CDP
• 2009/08/27: Reuters: Swiss cabinet proposes 20-30 percent CO2 cut by 2020
• 2009/08/25: TreeHugger: World's Largest Companies Need to Double Pace of CO2 Reductions to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change

  And in the carbon (& oxygen) cycle:

• 2009/08/30: NewScientist: Photosynthetic viruses keep world's oxygen levels up
• 2009/08/25: IAEA: Tracking Carbon in the Deep, Cold Blue -- IAEA Scientists Investigate Arctic Ocean for Clues of Climate Change

  As for the temperature record:

• 2009/08/30: PeakEnergy: Australia sweats through long, hot winter
• 2009/08/28: EarthTimes: Hong Kong sizzles in hottest August for 30 years
• 2009/08/27: WHOI: New Temperature Reconstruction from Indo-Pacific Warm Pool
• 2009/08/26: KSJT: Reuters, local NPR station: It's getting stickier in California as the ocean off Mexico heats up

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2009/08/24: ERabett: Smoke gets in Eli's ears

  The ozone layer is still under threat:

• 2009/08/27: NOAANews: NOAA Study Shows Nitrous Oxide Now Top Ozone-Depleting Emission
• 2009/08/27: Eureka: NOAA study shows nitrous oxide now top ozone-depleting emission

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/08/27: BYU: BYU geologist solves mystery of glaciers that grew while Asia heated up [9 kya]
• 2009/08/25: Eureka: UCSB scientists propose Antarctic location for 'missing' ice sheet [34 mya]

  And on the ENSO front:

• 2009/08/25: WMO: El Niño established and very likely to continue through 2009

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/08/30: Google:AFP: Melting glaciers threaten 'Nepal tsunami'
• 2009/08/27: OpenDem: After glaciers: a new climate world
  A field campaign to the remote south Atlantic reveals that glaciers on the island of South Georgia are disappearing at remarkable speed. This massive glacial retreat is part of an emerging climatic pattern. The implications are momentous, says Ãyvind Paasche

Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/08/27: ABC(Au): Single storey ban 'will drive up house costs'
  A demographer [Bernard Salt] says a proposal to ban single storey homes in flood prone areas of the Gold Coast will drive up housing costs. The Queensland Government's draft coastal plan proposes banning ground floor living areas in places less than 80 centimetres above sea level.
• 2009/08/27: SolveClimate: Learning to Battle Rising Seas from the Dutch
• 2009/08/26: ABC(Au): Draft coastal plan 'not strict enough'
  The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) says the State Government's draft coastal plan is putting lives and homes at risk. The draft plan proposes banning single-storey buildings in coastal areas less than 80 centimetres above sea level.
• 2009/08/24: NewScientist: Climate change could swamp Venice's flood defence

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/08/28: Google:AFP: Nepal villagers on climate change frontline
• 2009/08/27: NatureTGB: Aral Sea shrinking continues
• 2009/08/27: Straight: Hotter water linked to poor sockeye returns
• 2009/08/26: NatureCF: Consumer boom in hotter seas
• 2009/08/26: ClimateP: "Global Warming Is A Medical Emergency": Hellish heatwaves to harm health of millions
• 2009/08/25: ClimateP: 'Stress' is shrinking polar bears
• 2009/08/25: JFleck: Charismatic Megafauna
• 2009/08/25: TP:WR: Global Boiling: 'Global Warming Is A Medical Emergency'
• 2009/08/24: UOklahoma: Global warming threatens tropical species, the ecosystem and its by-products
• 2009/08/24: WTVR: Research finds higher ocean acidification off Alaska that could threaten fishing industry
• 2009/08/25: BBC: 'Stress' is shrinking polar bears -- Polar bears have shrunk over the last century, according to research
• 2009/08/24: PhysOrg: Research finds higher acidity in Alaska waters
• 2009/08/24: Eureka: Heat stress in older people and people with chronic diseases

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/08/30: NewScientist: Roads are ruining the rainforests
• 2009/08/25: Time: As Farmland Grows, the Trees Fight Back
• 2009/08/25: NewScientist: Intensive farming good for forests
• 2009/08/25: PhysOrg: World's last great forest under threat: new study
• 2009/08/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Bark Beetles, Wildfires, and Global Warming
• 2009/08/25: TreeHugger: Acacia Trees Could Solve Africa's Soil Problems, Be the Future for Farms
• 2009/08/25: UAdelaide: World's last great forest under threat: new study
  The world's last remaining "pristine" forest - the boreal forest across large stretches of Russia, Canada and other northern countries - is under increasing threat, a team of international researchers has found.
• 2009/08/24: Independent(UK): Watch out! Disaster looming for Kenya [forests]
  Politicians cared little about the burning of East Africa's largest forest -- until the lights in Nairobi started going out.
• 2009/08/23: Reuters: Tree cover far bigger than expected on farms: study -- Almost half of the world's farmland has at least 10 percent tree cover
• 2009/08/24: Kentucky: Beetles, wildfire: Double threat in warming world
  A veil of smoke settled over the forest in the shadow of the St. Elias Mountains, in a wilderness whose spruce trees stood tall and gray, a deathly gray even in the greenest heart of a Yukon summer. "As far as the eye can see, it's all infested," forester Rob Legare said, looking out over the thick woods of the Alsek River valley. Beetles and fire, twin plagues, are consuming northern forests in what scientists say is a preview of the future, in a century growing warmer, as the land grows drier, trees grow weaker and pests, abetted by milder winters, grow stronger.
• 2009/08/23: Guardian(UK): Blocked rivers threaten livelihood of Brazilian tribes
  Plans to build more than 200 hydro-electric dams bring prospect of cheap electricity but destruction of Amazon habitats

Corals are dying:

• 2009/08/29: HotTopic: A solemn warning on coral reefs
• 2009/08/25: ABC(Au): Reef conference [in July 2012] to have climate change, fishing focus
  A coral reef expert says climate change and the impact of fishing will be the major focus of an international reef conference to be staged in Cairns in far north Queensland. The International Coral Reef Symposium will be held in July 2012 and will include about 3,000 of the world's leading scientists from 90 countries.

Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2009/08/24: EurActiv: Tragedy triggers plans for new EU immigration policy
  The European Union will issue new immigration policy proposals by the end of October, Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said yesterday (23 August), responding to Italy's plea for more coordinated EU action. [...] Franco Frattini, the foreing minister of Italy, a country where thousands of migrants land each year after perilous journeys across the Mediterranean from Africa, said earlier that the problem must not be left to countries on the bloc's edges. [...] Last Thursday (20 August), Italian authorities found a boat carrying five Eritrean migrants who said 73 others had died during the crossing. "All we Europeans, all 27 countries, must bear responsibility for these people," Frattini said.

As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/08/29: CNN: High temperatures, dry conditions fuel wildfires
  The Station fire "very active on all fronts," U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman said - The Cottonwood, Palos Verdes and Morris fires were all ablaze late Friday - Homes in the Angeles National Forest-La Canada Flintridge area in danger
• 2009/08/30: EarthTimes: Firefighters battle 13 blazes in northern Portugal
• 2009/08/30: ENN: 10,000 Homes Threatened in Los Angeles Fires
• 2009/08/30: BBC: California fire threatens 10,000
  A wildfire in the mountains above Los Angeles is threatening some 10,000 homes, California officials have said. The fire almost tripled in size on Saturday, fuelled by hot weather and dry brush, firefighters said.
• 2009/08/29: CBS: Wildfire Explodes North of Los Angeles -- Mountain Fire Forces Evacuations; Smoke Hampering Water-Dropping Aircraft
• 2009/08/29: LAT:LA Now: Evacuations in Glendale, Altadena and Big Tujunga Canyon; two people treated for burns
• 2009/08/28: CBC: B.C. wildfires expected to flare again
  Several regions of B.C. could expect more fires this weekend due to high temperatures, low humidity and lightning, authorities say.
• 2009/08/28: CBC: Wildfires erupt in California -- More than 1,000 people flee homes
• 2009/08/28: CBC: B.C. wildfire evacuations grow
• 2009/08/25: Scripps: Deadly Heat Waves are Becoming More Frequent in California
• 2009/08/26: CBC: 700 on evacuation alert in B.C. Cariboo area
• 2009/08/26: PlanetArk: Greek Fires Under Control, Govt Under Attack
• 2009/08/25: TerraDaily: Firefighters claim victory over Athens inferno
• 2009/08/26: EarthTimes: New wildfire threatens village in eastern Spain
• 2009/08/25: Eureka: Deadly heat waves are becoming more frequent in California -- Conditions that drove potent heat wave in July 2006 likely to worsen under evolving climate change
• 2009/08/25: PhysOrg: Deadly heat waves are becoming more frequent in California
• 2009/08/25: EarthTimes: Wildfires under control on Iberian Peninsula
• 2009/08/25: EarthTimes: Greek firefighters contain massive wildfires - Update
• 2009/08/25: EarthTimes: Homes, forests left ruined as Greek wildfires recede
• 2009/08/24: NCSU: U.S. Crop Yields Could Wilt in Heat
• 2009/08/25: USAToday: Report: Future U.S. heat waves will be worse
• 2009/08/25: BBC: Forest fires - a continuing Greek tragedy?
  Around Athens, the fires appear to be under control - this time. But with average temperatures in southern Europe increasing, and computer models of future climate suggest that what we have seen so far is just the tip of a (melting) iceberg, were these fires just a foretaste of conflagrations that will come regularly as vegetation turns tinderbox dry?
  Are we already witnessing in Greece the fallout from a warming and drying of southern Europe?
• 2009/08/25: CBC: Athens wildfire contained -- Firefighting efforts scaled back
• 2009/08/25: BBC: Greek residents begin fire recovery
• 2009/08/24: EarthTimes: Homes and forests left wasted as Greek wildfires recede - Summary
• 2009/08/24: EarthTimes: Greeks relive horror of destructive fires - Feature
• 2009/08/24: EarthTimes: Wildfires continue ravaging Portugal and Spain
• 2009/08/24: EarthTimes: EU planes join Greek wildfire battle
• 2009/08/24: EarthTimes: Wildfires on destructive path into northern Athens suburbs - Update
• 2009/08/24: NYT: Thousands Flee as Greek Fires Rage -- destroy more than 30,000 acres of forest, farming fields and olive groves
• 2009/08/24: BBC: A lull in strong winds has given a boost to Greek firefighters battling dozens of wildfires across the country
• 2009/08/24: CBC: Greece wildfires prompt help from nations
• 2009/08/23: BBC: Athens locals flee as fires rage
  Several thousand residents of Athens' northern suburbs have evacuated their homes as several wildfires continue to blaze around the Greek capital. Almost the entire population of Agios Stefanos, 23km (14 miles) north-east of Athens, fled by vehicle or on foot. Multiple fires have been burning across an area some 50km wide, fanned by strong and unpredictable winds. The fires - the worst since those in 2007 which killed about 70 people - are being called an environmental disaster.
• 2009/08/23: Guardian(UK): Greece declares state of emergency as forest fires reach Athens

  And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2009/08/30: PhysOrg: Kenya's hippos hard hit by drought
• 2009/08/30: EarthTimes: 52 dead in floods in India's Bihar, over 1.5 million affected
• 2009/08/29: PeakEnergy: Water shortage threatens two million people in southern Iraq
• 2009/08/25: WFP: Kenyan Herders Devastated As Long Rains Fail
• 2009/08/27: JFleck: Texas Drought
• 2009/08/: BurningPlatform: Peak Water
• 2009/08/27: Yahoo:AFP: Australia sweats through long, hot winter
  Drought-hit Australia has endured an exceptionally hot winter, with abnormal temperatures shattering records that had in some places stood since World War II, official figures show. In a special climate statement released late Wednesday, the weather bureau said maximum temperatures in August were broadly three degrees Celsius (37 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the long-term average. "August 2009 is almost certain to be Australia?s warmest August on record," the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Water shortage threatens two million people in southern Iraq
• 2009/08/26: PhysOrg: [Australian] Water scarcity started 15 years ago
• 2009/08/25: Yahoo: Kenya's rural drought hurts city dwellers
• 2009/08/24: ERabett: Low and dry [India water]
• 2009/08/24: TerraDaily: Despair as drought cripples 'Australia's Mississippi' [the Murray-Darling river system]
• 2009/08/25: CCTV: Extended drought threatens China farmland
• 2009/08/23: MTobis: Texas Drought on the Ground
• 2009/08/23: TerraDaily: Nearly five million short of water in north China drought: report

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2009/08/27: WorldChanging: Turning Charcoal Into Carbon Gold
• 2009/08/25: TreeHugger: Acacia Trees Could Solve Africa's Soil Problems, Be the Future for Farms

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/08/27: WorldChanging: In Defense of High-Speed Rail
• 2009/08/27: TreeHugger: High-Speed Rail's Sky-High Cost Makes It a Lousy Way to Get Carbon Cuts
• 2009/08/26: CalcRisk: Truck Tonnage Index Increased 2.1 Percent in July
• 2009/08/26: DerSpiegel: All Aboard -- Siemens and Deutsche Plan US High-Speed Rail Offensive
  German engineering giant Siemens and national railway operator Deutsche Bahn are making plans to penetrate the US rail market. They hope to benefit from President Obama's promised $8 billion in investments in the country's high-speed railway infrastructure.
• 2009/08/26: BBC: New high-speed rail plan unveiled
  Network Rail has proposed a new £34bn ($55bn) high-speed railway line linking Scotland and London by 2030. The line would serve Birmingham and Manchester, getting passengers from Glasgow to London in just two hours and 16 minutes, the rail firm said. It rejected several alternative routes, including the east of England.
• 2009/08/24: REUB: Maybe pigs can fly
• 2009/08/25: EurActiv: EU publishes list of airlines for emissions trading
  The European Commission last week (22 August) published a list of nearly 4,000 commercial carriers which will have to participate in the EU's emissions trading scheme from 2012.
• 2009/08/25: EUO: Aviation faces CO2 squeeze while EU states bankroll the sector
  Thousands of airlines are set to face problems in flying into the European Union from 2012 unless they join the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the European Commission has said, although a number of member states at the same time continue to bankroll the sector that is the fastest growing source of transport greenhouse gases to the tune of millions of euros.
• 2009/08/24: EurActiv: High-speed trains 'not the answer' for cutting emissions
  Heavy investment in high-speed train networks is not a viable strategy for fighting climate change and could place an excessively heavy burden on taxpayers, a report by a Swedish expert group has found. The report, published by the Expert Group for Environmental Studies, an independent state body under the auspices of the Swedish Department of Finance, argues that a "political consensus has emerged that investing in high-speed railways can contribute to economic growth and reduced carbon emissions".

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

• 2009/08/28: Eureka: Suburbanization: The impact on energy use, CO2 emissions
• 2009/08/25: BBC: Green building looks back 500 years
  Despite wind turbines and solar panels popping up on offices and homes around the UK, the construction industry is still in a bind over climate change.

As for carbon sequestration:

• 2009/08/26: PlanetArk: U.S. Sets Awards To Evaluate CO2 Storage Technology
• 2009/08/25: PlanetArk: U.S. sets awards to evaluate CO2 storage technology
  The U.S. Department of Energy said on Monday it has awarded $27.6 million of funding to evaluate the potential risks of storing carbon dioxide underground, which is seen as a way to control global warming. The total value of the 19 projects selected is about $35.8 million over four years, with $27.6 million of DOE funding, according to the DOE.
• 2009/08/25: ENN: The Key to Safe Subsurface Storage of CO2
• 2009/08/24: PhysOrg: Opening the Door for CO2 [CCS]

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/08/30: Times(UK): Man-made volcanoes may cool Earth [Royal Soc]
• 2009/08/20: Edge: We are as gods and have to get good at it -- Stewart Brand Talks About His Ecopragmatist Manifesto
• 2009/08/29: ClimateP: Science on the Risks of Climate Engineering: "Optimism about a geoengineered 'easy way out' should be tempered by examination of currently observed climate changes"
• 2009/08/28: CNN: Can Bill Gates stop hurricanes? Scientists doubt it
• 2009/08/28: EurActiv: Artificial trees proposed as planet saviours
• 2009/08/27: NatureTGB: Mechanical engineers float fake plastic trees
• 2009/08/27: ABC(Au): Scientists in Britain say the most cost-effective and practical method to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is the use of artificial trees [IME]
• 2009/08/27: DM:80B: Fighting Global Warming: Artificial Trees and Slime-Covered Buildings
• 2009/08/27: Times(UK): Synthetic trees and algae can counter climate change, say engineers [IME]
• 2009/08/27: TreeHugger: Forest of 100,000 Artificial Carbon-Capturing Trees Proposed in UK [IME]
• 2009/08/27: BBC: 'Artificial trees' to cut carbon
  Engineers say a forest of 100,000 "artificial trees" could be deployed within 10 to 20 years to help soak up the world's carbon emissions. The trees are among three geo-engineering ideas highlighted as practical in a new report. The authors from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers say that without geo-engineering it will be impossible to avoid dangerous climate change. The report includes a 100-year roadmap to "decarbonise" the global economy.
• 2009/08/27: Guardian(UK): Fake trees, algae tubes and white roofs among UK engineers' climate solutions
  Report from Institute of Mechanical Engineers calls for £10m to develop geo-engineering ideas that would be 'an integral part' of the solution to global warming

Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/08/28: GRL: (ab$) Insufficient forcing uncertainty underestimates the risk of high climate sensitivity by Katsumasa Tanaka et al.
• 2009/08/28: ACP: An overview of two years of ozone radio soundings over Cotonou as part of AMMA by V. Thouret et al.
• 2009/08/27: ACP: Satellite observations and model simulations of tropospheric NO2 columns over south-eastern Europe by I. Zyrichidou et al.
• 2009/08/28: ACPD: The impact of aerosols on polarized sky radiance: model development, validation, and applications by C. Emde et al.
• 2009/08/21: Science: (ab$) Risks of Climate Engineering by Gabriele C. Hegerl & Susan Solomon
• 2009/07/31: Arxiv: Climate Engineering Responses to Climate Emergencies by J. J. Blackstock et al.
• 2009/08/27: CP: Investigating the impact of Lake Agassiz drainage routes on the 8.2 ka cold event with a climate model by Y.-X. Li et al.
• 2009/08/25: TC: Layer disturbances and the radio-echo free zone in ice sheets by R. Drews et al.
• 2009/08/27: TCD: The annual surface energy budget of a high-arctic permafrost site on Svalbard, Norway by S. Westermann et al.
• 2009/08/25: ACP: The climatic effects of the direct injection of water vapour into the stratosphere by large volcanic eruptions by M. M. Joshi & G. S. Jones
• 2009/08/24: ACPD: Initial fate of fine ash and sulfur from large volcanic eruptions by U. Niemeier et al.
• 2009/08/24: ACPD: Hydration and dehydration at the tropical tropopause by C. Schiller et al.
• 2009/08/25: PNAS: Preventing the collapse of the Baltic cod stock through an ecosystem-based management approach by Martin Lindegren et al.
• 2009/08/25: PNAS: [Letter] Use of inadequate data and methodological errors lead to an overestimation of the water footprint of Jatropha curcas by W. H. Maes et al.
• 2009/08/26: PLoS One: Energy Sprawl or Energy Efficiency: Climate Policy Impacts on Natural Habitat for the United States of America by Robert I. McDonald et al.

  And other significant documents:

• 2009/08/29: VoxEU: When carbon is priced, who ultimately pays? by Corbett Grainger & Charles Kolstad
  Opponents of US climate change legislation voice concerns about its effect on consumers in coal-reliant states, industries' competitiveness, and regressive distributional consequences. This column argues that these concerns are either unfounded or have been addressed fairly. It says the conflict is more about ideology than distributional issues.
• 2009/08/28: EtcGroup: [link to 200k pdf] The Emperor's New Climate: Geoengineering as 21st century fairytale
• 2009/08/27: IIED: [link to 2 meg pdf] Assessing the costs of adaptation to climate change: A critique of the UNFCCC estimates by Martin Parry et al.
• 2009/08/26: IMechE: [link to 1.8 meg pdf] Geo-engineering - Giving us time to act?
• 2009/08/25: NWF: [link to 2.8 meg pdf] Global Warming Bringing More Extreme Heat Waves -- More Extremely Hot Days Projected -- 30 Large Cities Especially Vulnerable
• 2009/08/25: CCP: [reg req] [4.2 meg pdf] A Technical Basis for Carbon Dioxide Storage

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

• 2009/08/28: ERabett: Here we went again -- The Geological Society of America has a new draft policy statement on climate change...
• 2009/08/28: SolveClimate: Fighting Climate Change at Nanoscale
• 2009/08/26: IGBP: Has northern-hemisphere pollution affected Australian rainfall?
• 2009/08/24: PhysOrg: NASA expands high-end computing system for climate simulation
  NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., made available to scientists in August the first unit of an expanded high-end computing system that will serve as the centerpiece of a new climate simulation capability. The larger computer, part of NASA's High-End Computing Program, will be hosting the agency's modeling contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other national and international climate initiatives. The expansion added 4,128 computer processors to Goddard's Discover high-end computing system. The IBM iDataPlex "scalable unit" uses Intel's newest Xeon 5500 series processors, which are based on the Nehalem architecture introduced in spring 2009.

Jeremy Leggett interview:

• 2009/08/25: ConduciveMag: Interview with solar power entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett

  Pielke, alas:

• 2009/08/25: JEB: A bizarre rewriting of history

  And on the road to Copenhagen:

• 2009/08/28: PlanetArk: Factbox-Industrialised Nations Plan 10-14 pct CO2 Cuts By 2020
  Industrialised nations are planning average cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of between 10 and 14 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of a new U.N. climate pact, according to a compilation of national data. The reductions fall well short of cuts of between 25 and 40 pecent by 2020 outlined by a U.N. panel of climate experts in 2007 to avoid the worst of global warming such as more droughts, heatwaves, species extinctions and rising seas.
• 2009/08/28: PlanetArk: Big Role Urged For Energy Research In Climate Pact
• 2009/08/28: TreeHugger: Indonesia Hints at 40% Emissions Reductions by 2030 - If International Support is Forthcoming
• 2009/08/28: EarthTimes: Africa readies for Copenhagen fight as climate change bites
• 2009/08/28: Reuters: Indonesia agency seeks sweeping CO2 emissions cuts
  An Indonesian environment agency has set out a roadmap for the government to adopt forestry, energy, transport, industrial and agriculture policies that would slash carbon emissions by the world's No. 3 emitter. Indonesia's government-backed National Climate Change Council, or NCCC, said significant cuts in emissions could be made through efforts to conserve forests and peatlands, among its top recommendations in a report published this week ahead of the key climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. The United States and China are the world's top two emitters.
• 2009/08/26: ClimateP: 'China will sign' global treaty if U.S. passes climate bill, E.U. leader [Swedish environment minister, Andreas Carlgren] says
• 2009/08/27: Reuters: Rich could add CO2 cuts to bolster climate pact [says Mark Kenber, policy director at The Climate Group]
• 2009/08/27: HotTopic: Prescott: Plan B for Copenhagen failure?
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Rich countries must be prepared to make deeper cuts in emissions: Prescott
• 2009/08/26: EurActiv: WWF challenges EU ministers to revisit CO2 standards
  WWF wrote to the Swedish EU Presidency on Friday (21 August) to urge governments to modify a "legally invalid" provision contained in draft rules on industrial pollution, which prevents member states from introducing CO2 emission standards.
• 2009/08/25: BBerg: India, China Want to Be Part of Climate Solution, Ramesh Says
• 2009/08/26: BBerg: India Urges Rich Countries to Call Its Climate Change 'Bluff'
  India's environment minister urged the world's developed countries to call his nation's 'bluff' and sign on to steeper cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. India and China would have to "respond very positively" if rich nations such as the U.S. agreed to a goal of cutting emissions 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, Jairam Ramesh said in an interview yesterday in Beijing, where he met with Xie Zhenhua, China's top climate-change negotiator. "That's a game changer," Ramesh said. "It would be very difficult for me, as an Indian minister, not to respond if developed countries accept this proposal. The fat would be in the fire, our bluff would be called."
• 2009/08/25: Guardian(UK): A deal in Copenhagen should keep Kyoto's weak enforcement
• 2009/08/25: ABC(Au): The African Union has drafted a provocative resolution to take to the international climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year, asking for compensation
• 2009/08/24: Grist: Water must be on the table at Copenhagen talks [WWW]
• 2009/08/24: Yahoo: Africa to seek billions in compensation at climate meet
• 2009/08/25: FTimes: Asia hits back on climate change
  China and India have closed ranks on climate change, blaming developed countries for the lack of progress towards a deal. "They have talked much, but not done much," said Xie Zhenhua, China's minister in charge of climate change, adding that the conflict between developed and developing nations was driven by commercial and political interest. His remarks came during two days of talks with Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, which were aimed at -synchronising the two countries' positions as negotiations at Copenhagen, Denmark, on climate change draw near.
• 2009/08/24: ChinaDaily: China vows green commitments: road to Copenhagen
• 2009/08/24: NatureTGB: In Quotes: Road to Copenhagen
• 2009/08/24: Xinhuanet: China to push world climate conference success with utmost sincerity
  China's top official for world climate change negotiation said Monday that China would "do its best with utmost sincerity" to push for the success of an international mechanism that is expected to urgently address global warming. Xie Zhenhua, vice minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told China's top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, that China would continue international negotiations on climate change with a spirit of "being highly responsible for the survival and long-term development of mankind". Vice Minister Xie is to attend the 15th conference of the Parties (COP15) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from Dec. 7 to Dec. 18 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• 2009/08/24: Thaindian: Climate change talks must include water, say experts [WWWeek]
• 2009/08/24: People's Daily: Int'l climate talks 'wrestle over economy': China's top negotiator
  China's top environment negotiator said Monday that the current global fight over climate change is in nature a multinational wrestling match on winning or maintaining each country's economic competitive edge or room for development. The conflict between developed countries centers on economy, technology and global dominance whereas developing nations fight against restrictions on their developments, said Xie Zhenhua, vice minister in charge of China's National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner. "The conflicts are driven by commercial and political interests," Xie said in a report delivered at the 10th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.
• 2009/08/24: Yahoo: China says climate talks stymied by political interests
  Little progress has been made so far on a new pact to combat global warming, with "commercial and political interests" continuing to prevail, China's senior climate change official said on Monday. Skip related content The vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua, said industrialized countries were still attempting to persuade the developing world to accept quantifiable targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report by Xinhua news agency.
• 2009/08/24: Reuters: Africa wants $67 billion a year to fight climate change
• 2009/08/24: BBC: Africa seeks climate change cash
  Ministers from 10 African countries are meeting in Ethiopia to try to agree a common position on climate change, months before a crucial UN meeting. They are expected to renew demands for billions of dollars in compensation for Africa because of damage caused by global warming. And they are likely to ask rich nations to cut emissions by 40% by 2012. African nations are among the lightest polluters but analysts say they will suffer the most from climate change.

While at the UN:

• 2009/08/28: EarthTimes: Climate issues to prevail on Ban's visit to northern Norway
• 2009/08/28: UN: Agreement on new climate change pact crucial to future of humanity, says Ban
• 2009/08/23: UN: Youth to mobilize against climate change in 100 cities - UN
• 2009/08/24: EarthTimes: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit Norway's arctic region impacted by climate change
• 2009/08/24: SolveClimate: UNEP Youth Conference: Turn Words into Climate Action Before It's Too Late

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/08/30: Times(UK): Firms face VAT shock after carbon credit scam is smashed
• 2009/08/27: EnvFin: Carbon VAT fraudsters eyeing other environmental markets?
• 2009/08/27: EnvFin: India plans energy efficiency trading scheme
• 2009/08/26: BizGreen: India lays foundation for $15bn cap-and-trade market -- Businesses will be subject to electricity thresholds under wide-reaching energy-efficiency plan
• 2009/08/25: CanWest: India unveils cap and trade market worth $15B
• 2009/08/24: DeSmogBlog: Agents Bust Nine for "Cap-and-Fraud"

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/08/26: TreeHugger: Is the United States Ready for a Higher Gas Tax?

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/08/26: HotTopic: Come together
• 2009/08/23: Yahoo: China Nears Climate-Change Deal With U.S. Over Fuel Efficiency

  As for GW & security:

• 2009/08/28: TBO: Climate change poses threat of war, USF forum will hear
• 2009/08/14: TBAS: A brief history of climate change and conflict
• 2009/08/28: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Conflicts over water set to increase
• 2009/08/26: ClimateP: Enhancing our national security by reducing oil dependence and environmental damage
• 2009/08/22: BostonGlobe: Fighting global warming with CIA? Some say security fears are counterproductive

  The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world as nations scramble to deal with climate change:

• 2009/08/27: Grist: Thoreau, Walden and civil disobedience in the age of climate change
• 2009/08/27: Guardian(UK): Police adopt low profile as 1,000 Climate Camp activists set up base
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Police to photograph Climate Camp demonstrators -- Organisers urge protesters not to show their faces to cameras
• 2009/08/26: BBC: Police have promised a low-key approach to planned climate change protests this week to avoid trouble that flared during the G20 summit
• 2009/08/25: Guardian(UK): Poll shows public disquiet about policing at environmental protests
• 2009/08/25: Guardian(UK): Watching the detectives: Climate Camp hits London
• 2009/08/25: Reuters: Climate protesters play cat and mouse with police

  And on the American political front:

• 2009/08/28: ERabett: Eli the Prophet
• 2009/08/29: NYT: A Sometimes Lonely Trek for Global Warming Awareness
• 2009/08/24: AfterGutenberg: A Map of Stupid
• 2009/08/28: ChicagoTrib: Two officials in Texas go after one of state's biggest benefactors: Exxon
• 2009/08/28: ClimateP: Midwestern states to see harshest warming -- if their Senators filibuster a climate bill
• 2009/08/26: WSJ:EnvCap: Oil Independence: Will Waxman-Markey Make a Difference?
• 2009/08/26: SolveClimate: Researchers to Coal-Addicted U.S. South: Take the Efficiency Plunge -- Please!
• 2009/08/23: WaPo: Hope for Cap-and-Trade?
  The Post asked politicians, academics and others whether the health-care debate has made it unlikely that climate change legislation will be passed in the near future. Below are contributions from Steven F. Hayward, Kenneth P. Green, James M. Inhofe, Geoff Garin, Tony Fratto, Steve Seidel, David G. Hawkins, Harold Ford Jr., Kay Baily Hutchison and Barbara Boxer.
• 2009/08/25: TP:WR: Climate Change Expert Slams Premise Of Environmental Argument Against Immigration
• 2009/08/24: ClimateP: Even fantasy-filled American Petroleum Institute study finds no significant impact of climate bill on US refining
• 2009/08/24: Grist: Don't mess with him -- Badass mayor [John Fetterman] builds bridges between working class and enviros
• 2009/08/25: WSJ:EnvCap: Wyoming's Grousing About Wind Power
• 2009/08/24: NYT:CW: Aggravation Mounts in Minn. Over Governor's Shift on Climate
  Minnesota's Republican governor used to make soaring speeches about defusing climate change. Now he's making jokes, and some environmentalists are wondering whether his gone-missing support amounts to "bait and switch" politics. Gov. Tim Pawlenty is stoking frustration among Democratic state lawmakers and prominent climate thinkers for becoming "totally silent" on two major efforts to stem greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota and in a strip of states stretching from Canada to Kansas. The turnaround is striking because it was the governor who powerfully promoted the initiatives. Now, chafed participants believe Pawlenty is abandoning climate action to mend his conservative credentials before taking a stab at the Republican nomination for president in 2012.
• 2009/08/24: Grist: Snow jobs -- The nefarious net-effect argument: Recent conservative studies on clean energy jobs miss the mark
• 2009/08/23: TreeHugger: Southern Governors Warned About Impacts of Climate Change
• 2009/08/24: TreeHugger: Natural Gas Has Our Back: Last Shot For A Better Climate Bill This Year

  A Saudi view of American energy independence -- the dealer paniks when the junkie tries to get clean:

• 2009/08/25: NYT:GreenInc: Saudi Blasts American Energy Policy
  Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi ambassador to the United States, calls American energy policy "demagoguery." The question of American "energy independence" clearly rankles officials in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest exporter of crude oil, who seem increasingly puzzled by the energy policy of the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer. In a short and strongly-worded essay in Foreign Policy magazine, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former ambassador to the United States and a nephew to King Abdullah, said that for American politicians, invoking energy independence "is now as essential as baby-kissing," and accuses them of "demagoguery."

A poll has found broad support for Obama's energy policy among the people.
Too bad the Senate represents corporate interests:

• 2009/08/28: C411: Yet Another Poll: Americans Want Clean Energy
• 2009/08/28: ClimateP: Yet another major poll finds "broad support" for clean energy and climate bill: "Support for the plan among independents has increased slightly."
• 2009/08/28: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Post/ABC Poll Shows Oil-and Coal-Funded Astroturf Efforts to Kill Clean Energy Are Failing
• 2009/08/28: TreeHugger: Americans Support Obama's Energy Policy: New Poll
• 2009/08/28: WSJ:EnvCap: Obama Energy Plans Have Broad Support -- Up to a Point
• 2009/08/28: WaPo: On Energy, Obama Finds Broad Support -- Poll Shows Backing for Reform Efforts, But Cap-and-Trade Bill Is Harder Sell

  Something going on in USCAP?

• 2009/08/26: SF Gate: Oil companies undermining climate partnership
  Early in 2007, a coalition of big companies broke ranks with corporate America and declared that global warming was a real, grave threat. The United States Climate Action Partnership changed the national debate over warming. Executives from member companies such as DuPont, Ford Motor Co. and PG&E Corp. lobbied Congress to do something about greenhouse gases. They joined forces with environmental groups that also were part of the partnership, groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Together, they helped lay the groundwork for the climate bill that the U.S. Senate will debate this fall. But now this groundbreaking partnership may have been undercut by some of its own members.

The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/08/28: Forbes: Obama Faces Uphill Climate-Change Battle -- An overly ambitious agenda may reduce the chances of Senate action on climate change in 2009
• 2009/08/27: ClimateP: Grist: Barack Obama is not Bagger Vance
• 2009/08/25: Grist: Barack Obama is not Bagger Vance
  Things are pretty grim among progressives these days, what with health care bogging down and climate legislation on indefinite delay; right wing crazies everywhere and Blue Dogs intransigent; the organized coalition that brought Obama to office fractured and ineffective. Disillusionment is in the air.
  In response, on listservs and private conversations, I'm hearing more and more people express some version of the following sentiment: Barack Obama should save us. According to this line of thinking, if Obama really got serious, got his messaging right, did a really good speech, exercised his extraordinary popularity with the American people, he could right the ship for his two main domestic initiatives, both of which are drifting perilously close to the shoals.
  It's understandable. Everyone still remembers the extraordinary high of the campaign, the rare and almost forgotten feeling of being genuinely moved by a civic-minded politician. Everyone wants that high back, as an escape from the lies, bottlenecks, and general unpleasantness that now beset us.
  But let me be blunt: Barack Obama is not our magic negro. He's not Bagger Vance.
• 2009/08/24: MongaBay: Environmental disappointments under Obama

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/08/28: Grist: White House announces Gulf restoration task force amid criticism of Army Corps
• 2009/08/28: Coloradoan: Salazar: Let's take renewable energy lead -- National, state officials gather to discuss new economy
• 2009/08/27: PlanetArk: U.S. Grants $300 Million For Alternative Fuel Vehicles
• 2009/08/26: AutoBG: DOE launches $1 million Hydrogen Prize
• 2009/08/25: Reuters: U.S. budget update stands pat on CO2 permit auction
• 2009/08/24: Reuters: U.S. needs climate law before Copenhagen: officials [Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack & Commerce Secretary Gary Locke]
• 2009/08/25: TreeHugger: US Must Have a Climate Bill Before December's UN Climate Talks: Agriculture & Commerce Secretaries
• 2009/08/24: ClimateP: Obama's science adviser [Jon Holdren] targeted by smear campaign

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/08/27: GreenGrok: On the Climate Bill Fence: How Sen. [Lindsey] Graham (R-SC) Got There
• 2009/08/26: Grist: [Senator] Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) does not believe in the threat of anthropogenic climate change
• 2009/08/26: WSJ:EnvCap: Enviros to Boxer: Toughen Up the Climate Bill!
• 2009/08/26: SolveClimate: 300-Plus Groups Write to Senate Calling for Stronger Climate Bill
• 2009/08/26: FOE: 300+ Groups Ask Senate for Stronger Climate Bill
• 2009/08/25: ClimateP: Fighting back, several Senators are working to strengthen the climate and clean energy bill
• 2009/08/25: HillHeat: Senators Work to Strengthen American Clean Energy And Security Act
• 2009/08/24: TP:WR: Fighting Back, Several Senators Are Attempting To Make American Clean Energy And Security Act Stronger
• 2009/08/24: ClimateP: The climate and clean energy bill does not "let coal plants off the hook" as Carl Pope and Eric Schaeffer assert
• 2009/08/24: HillHeat: Senate Watch: Boxer, Hutchison, Inhofe, McCain, Udall
• 2009/08/24: CSW: Senate should pass a climate bill with a comprehensive adaptation policy

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2009/08/25: C411: API Misses the Mark: Why Refineries Will Do Just Fine Under ACES
• 2009/08/28: C411: What Does the Global Warming Bill Have to Do With Foreign Oil?
• 2009/08/27: RollCall: NAM Targeting Senators on Cap-and-Trade With Multimillion Dollar Ad Buy
• 2009/08/27: TheHill: Business groups target climate bill
  Advocates for manufacturers and small businesses are launching a multimillion-dollar ad campaign against climate change legislation in states represented by senators likely to determine the bill's fate. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), groups that have historically leaned Republican, are targeting the House Waxman-Markey bill as a threat to the economy because it would raise energy costs.
• 2009/08/28: TP:WR: Illinois Electric Cooperative Scares Ratepayers Into Joining Oil Rallies Against Clean Energy Reform
• 2009/08/27: OilChange: Valero's Flawed "Voices for Energy"
• 2009/08/24: ClimateP: The latest polluter front group trying to kill the clean energy bill is overseen by a proud former shill for [B.Bradley] a man convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges
• 2009/08/23: BSD: $30-$60 million campaign to get climate legislation passed

  The UK was all Climate Camp, all the time:

• 2009/08/30: Guardian(UK): The Climate Camp is too self-regarding to be effective
• 2009/08/27: Guardian(UK): Climate Camp activists launch direct action on City of London
• 2009/08/27: Guardian(UK): Climate Camp London: day two live
• 2009/08/26: BBC: Climate for change on the heath [Climate Camp 2009]
• 2009/08/27: Guardian(UK): Climate Camp 2009 voices: 'It's about taking responsibility for the future'
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Climate Camp activists set up in south London
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Camp for Climate Action 2009 (17 pictures)
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Day one on Climate Camp and big brother is nowhere to be seen
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Blackheath revealed as Climate Camp location
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Climate Camp hits London: live
• 2009/08/26: BBC: About 1,000 climate change protesters are making their way to Blackheath in south-east London where they plan to set up camp for a week
• 2009/08/25: Guardian(UK): Q&A: Climate Camp -- What happens at Climate Camp and what's the protest about?
• 2009/08/25: Guardian(UK): Putting people before profit
  From tomorrow, Climate Camp will highlight how disastrous the financial system is for us all. We must rediscover the eco-system
• 2009/08/24: FTimes: Climate activists target London institutions
• 2009/08/23: Guardian(UK): Minister met BAA chief executive before Climate Camp to discuss tactics
• 2009/08/23: Guardian(UK): Men - not the only greens -- When it comes to climate change talks, women are an endangered species. But our input is crucial
• 2009/08/23: Guardian(UK): Climate Camp: Biggest gathering of green activists - but where will it be?

  And in Europe:

• 2009/08/27: Reuters: Swiss cabinet proposes 20-30 percent CO2 cut by 2020
• 2009/08/25: EUO: Aviation faces CO2 squeeze while EU states bankroll the sector
  Thousands of airlines are set to face problems in flying into the European Union from 2012 unless they join the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the European Commission has said, although a number of member states at the same time continue to bankroll the sector that is the fastest growing source of transport greenhouse gases to the tune of millions of euros.
• 2009/08/24: DerSpiegel: Falling Short on Climate Goals -- Germany Not Likely To Achieve CO2 Reduction Targets
  Germany may be a world leader in the production of renewable energies, but a study commissioned by Greenpeace predicts the country won't make its ambitious 2020 target of a 40 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
• 2009/08/25: BTN: EU warns dirty airlines to clean up or face ban
  Over 3,500 airlines and business jet operators globally will have to sign up to the new European Union Emissions Trading Scheme by 2012 or face either financial penalties or a ban, the EU has warned.
• 2009/08/24: EurActiv: Environmentalists say Greece disregarded climate change
  Environmentalists have criticised the Greek authorities for disregarding climate change, while major wildfires are ravaging the country and threatening the outskirts of the country's capital, Greek and international media reported.

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/08/30: ABC(Au): Nationals promised ETS at last election: Pyne
  Federal Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne has taken a swipe at the National Party over its position on an emissions trading scheme (ETS).
• 2009/08/28: ABC(Au): Latrobe Valley forum focuses on climate change
  The Victorian Climate Change Minister, Gavin Jennings, is addressing the latest in a series of regional forums on global warming at Kernot Hall in the Latrobe Valley today.
• 2009/08/28: ABC(Au): 'Not enough' consultation on Hobart turbines
  A Hobart City Council alderman has accused the Tasmanian Government of underestimating opposition to wind turbines on the Hobart waterfront. Alderman Darlene Haigh is upset about an apparent lack of community consultation on plans to intall four wind turbines on Hobart's Marine Board Building.
• 2009/08/28: Australian: Renewables target will take 100 years - Dashwood
  ExxxonMobil Australia chairman John Dashwood has expressed scepticism at federal laws requiring 20 per cent of electricity be sourced from renewable sources by 2020, saying such a transformation was likely to take 100 years.
• 2009/08/26: ABC(Au): Greens leader Bob Brown says the Government's approval of the Gorgon gas project off the Western Australian coast is environmental vandalism
• 2009/08/26: ABC(Au): Coonabarabran looks to renewable energy future
• 2009/08/26: ABC(Au): The New South Wales Government plans to fast-track renewable energy projects in the state's south-east
• 2009/08/26: PlanetArk: Australia, NZ Firms Restless Over Carbon Uncertainty
• 2009/08/26: WorldChanging: Climate Change Politics Floods Australian Parliament
• 2009/08/26: ABC(Au): Gorgon's emissions storage under fire
  Environment Minister Peter Garrett has given the $50 billion Gorgon gas project the green light but the consortium's plan to bury millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions remains in doubt. Technical experts working on the carbon capture project at Barrow Island off the Western Australian coast found it was possible gas could leak from the geological formation.
• 2009/08/26: CCurrents: Australia Absurdly Declares Methane Burning Clean And Renewable
• 2009/08/26: BBC: Australia island gas deal sealed
  Australia has given final approval for a huge natural gas project to be built on an island nature reserve off west Australia. The project on Barrow Island will be run by US oil firm Chevron, and partners Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, and will supply gas to China.
• 2009/08/25: ABC(Au): A dairy industry group [Australian Dairy Farmers] wants the Federal Government to be more up-front about rising costs under its emissions trading scheme
• 2009/08/25: ABC(Au): A climate change camp is to be staged outside the Metropolitan Colliery in Helensburgh, with the aim of stopping its recently approved expansion
• 2009/08/25: ABC(Au): New power station 'greener'
  The owner of a new power station on southern Queensland's Darling Downs says the facility will comply with state and federal climate change policies. Queensland Infrastructure Minister Stirling Hinchliffe will officially open the 450 megawatt Braemar Two station near Dalby today.
• 2009/08/24: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says his Liberal colleagues stand united on an emissions trading policy despite claims from Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce that some are backing away from supporting a scheme

  And New Zealand:

• 2009/08/26: PlanetArk: Australia, NZ Firms Restless Over Carbon Uncertainty

  While in India:

• 2009/08/28: NRDC:SwitchBoard: India: Climate-Health
• 2009/08/28: Guardian(UK): Leave population out of climate talks, Indian minister says
  Jairam Ramesh claims there is a move among western countries to bring India's rapidly growing population into climate change negotiations
• 2009/08/28: BBerg: Food, Water, Energy Shortages Threaten India Security
• 2009/08/24: IndiaTimes: 'No development will be of use if Ganga dries up' [Bill McKibben interview]
  [...] India has the least developed policy. Climate change is not a fully mature political issue here. People need to be clear about the danger to development posed by not doing anything. What's the back-up plan if the Ganga's glacier melts? No car factory will be of any use if the monsoons fail. No development will be of any use if the Ganges dries up.

And China:

• 2009/08/28: PlanetArk: Ban On Scrap Polysilicon To Boost China Solar Sector
• 2009/08/27: Guardian(UK): Chinese legislature passes its first climate change resolution
• 2009/08/27: Reuters: China lawmakers call for action on climate change
  Chinese legislators said on Thursday that their country will "strive to control greenhouse gas emissions" and consider new laws to fight climate change, while warning against using the issue to raise trade barriers. The positions were laid out in a resolution passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, or parliament, adding to a flurry of statements on climate change from China, the world's biggest emitter of human-caused greenhouse gases.
• 2009/08/25: PlanetArk: China says climate talks stymied by political interests
• 2009/08/25: ChinaDaily: Legislators to deliberate draft on climate change
• 2009/08/24: NYT: China Racing Ahead of U.S. in the Drive to Go Solar
• 2009/08/24: BBC: Perfect Storm: China's energy hunger
  China is investing heavily in wind power, but coal is still the main source of energy, reports Quentin Sommerville in Inner Mongolia, as a new generation of hungry consumers rushes to grab the opportunity of a better life.
• 2009/08/23: NakedCapitalism: China Leading World in Green Energy

  In Japan, a change in government may herald a change in climate change policy:

• 2009/08/30: BBC: 'Major win' for Japan opposition
  The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is set for a massive election victory, exit polls suggest. The DPJ has won 300 seats in the 480-seat lower house, ending 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), NHK TV says. The DPJ says it will shift the focus of government from supporting corporations to helping consumers and workers. Japan is suffering record unemployment and its economy is struggling to emerge from a bruising recession. The conservative LDP, led by Prime Minister Taro Aso, has governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955. The DPJ leader, Yukio Hatoyama, has promised to boost welfare, reform the bureaucracy, and seek a more balanced relationship with the United States. Official results are expected early on Monday
.
• 2009/08/28: WSJ:EnvCap: Divine Wind: What Will Japan's Election Mean for Climate Policy?

  In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:

• 2009/08/30: TStar: Canada slow to lift finger from world climate trigger -- With Copenhagen talks fast approaching, Ottawa is unwilling to show leadership
• 2009/08/27: CBC: Can't extend Arctic icebreaker season: Coast Guard
• 2009/08/26: OBMB: Conservative Fundamentalism is Destroying Canada

  Late coverage of the PR run through the Arctic:

• 2009/08/22: NunatsiaqOnline: Operation Nanook: the most expensive photo-op you'll ever see
• 2009/08/25: Impolitical: "Operation Nanook: the most expensive photo-op you'll ever see"

  In BC, the forest minister set the mood:

• 2009/08/25: CanWest: World nearing 'tipping point' on climate change, forests minister warns -- Science to help turn beetle-battered trees into biofuels
  Forest fires, flooding and the mountain pine beetle epidemic are clear examples in B.C. that climate change is real and needs to be addressed by governments around the world, B.C. Forests Minister Pat Bell told an International Energy Agency conference on bioenergy Monday. "I am not a doomsayer, I am not one who wants to say we are beyond the tipping point. But I am afraid that we are getting close to that," Bell told 200 of the world's leading experts on bioenergy attending the conference at the University of B.C. Delegates are addressing the latest advances in biofuels. Bell said the devastation caused by the pine beetle and this summer's forest fires are clear indicators of climate change.
• 2009/08/26: Straight: Mr. Premier: Beyond the tipping point of climate change?
• 2009/08/24: BCLocalNews: Green home renos take hit with loss of rebates
  The province is pulling the plug early on its LiveSmart BC rebates that subsidized energy efficient home upgrades to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Companies that specialize in the growing green industry say they were sideswiped by the provincial announcement earlier this month.
• 2009/08/25: G&M: BC Hydro delays clean power contracts -- Power corporation complying with court rulings for more First Nations consultation
• 2009/08/25: Tyee: Lots of Food, but for How Long? BC's home-grown food supply is shrinking. Who's doing it better?
• 2009/08/23: LCR: Hey, Greens -- how are you feeling now that you helped elect a boneheaded anti-environmentalist Premier in BC?

  Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:

• 2009/08/28: CleanBreak: Co-op to sell, install solar PV systems for Ontario farmers, greenhouses

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/08/27: CBC: Alberta deficit at $6.9B
• 2009/08/26: CBC: Researchers study sick tarsands fish
• 2009/08/25: OilDrum: Canada's Oil Sands - Part 1
• 2009/08/24: Guardian(UK): Canada's bloody oil by George Poitras
  UK companies are extracting oil from our traditional lands. We believe it's killing us -- and that's why I'm attending Climate Camp
• 2009/08/24: OilChange: "British companies are killing us"
• 2009/08/23: Guardian(UK): Native Americans to join London climate camp protest over tar sands
  Canadian First Nations seek to highlight UK's 'criminal' role in CO2-heavy oil schemes

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2009/08/25: CBC: Improved storm warning system urged
  Federal and provincial officials are calling for an improved national emergency warning system in the aftermath of a line of tornadoes that left an 11-year-old boy dead, trees twisted out of the ground and residents pinned to the sides of buildings. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Monday authorities should look at how they can better warn the public about severe storms, and if there are better alert systems in place elsewhere authorities have a duty to take a look at them. Chris McCluskey, spokesman for the federal Ministry of Public Safety, said in a statement Monday that the department is working to introduce a national public alert system.
• 2009/08/24: PGraham: Be proud of Canada's Kyoto cockup [Frontier Centre]
• 2009/08/24: G&M: Canada should resist temptation
  To forgo a Canadian version of the U.S. Cash for Clunkers program would be to prevent government car incentives from becoming a permanent addiction
• 2009/08/23: Canoe: Canadians want action on environment: poll
  Canadians are telling governments not to let the recession become an excuse for easing up on efforts to protect the environment, a new poll suggests. The finding and others in The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey suggests that while voters are worried about the economy, they do not want governments to ease off on measures to protect the environment and combat global warming. On the key question, 67 per cent of those asked said the environment should be just as much as priority for governments as tackling economic problems, with only 26 per cent saying it was a secondary concern.
• 2009/08/24: CanWest: Chrysler Canada announces cash-for-clunkers plan

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

• 2009/08/: CACOR: "Our Unfolding Destiny: Possibilities and Probabilities"
• 2009/08/23: Grist: Tell it like it is -- The fallacy of climate activism

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

• 2009/08/28: Guardian(UK): Leave population out of climate talks, Indian minister says
  Jairam Ramesh claims there is a move among western countries to bring India's rapidly growing population into climate change negotiations
• 2009/08/27: BBC: The UK population has passed 61 million for the first time, according to the Office for National Statistics
• 2009/08/25: BBC: Perfect Storm: Science and food
  Faced with the threat of a booming population going hungry in a warming world, there is quiet confidence among many researchers that technology can provide solutions...
• 2009/08/24: KSJT: BBC: Population, the topic so big most ignore it, get's a look
• 2009/08/24: BBC: What is the 2030 Perfect Storm idea?
  As the world's population grows, competition for food, water and energy will increase. Food prices will rise, more people will go hungry, and migrants will flee the worst-affected regions.

Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/08/27: NH: The Next Dark Age?
• 2009/08/25: NewScientist: Survival in a post-apocalypse blackout

  As for how the media handles science:

• 2009/08/24: Grist: Washington Post features rail hack job from Robert Samuelson
• 2009/08/23: Deltoid: Shoddy journalism from Stephen Sackur

  While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2009/08/24: Maribo: What we should be saying about climate change
• 2009/08/28: MTobis: Some Big Picture Comments
• 2009/08/29: IJI: A word on Stalin, Galileo, and all that
• 2009/08/28: GreenFyre: Climate Deniers demand Stalinist style political show trial
• 2009/08/24: ClimateP: How do you beat the disinformers when progressives are lousy at messaging and big media is impotent?

  Here is something for your library:

• 2009/08/24: MTobis: My Craven Rave at Last [Book Review] _What's the Worst that Could Happen_ by Greg Craven

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2009/08/29: ClimateSight: Moments of Revelation [Plug for BBC video _Climate Wars_ hosted by Dr Iain Stewart]
• 2009/08/26: AlterNet: 'Crude': The Film Chevron Doesn't Want You to See

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/08/28: LA Times: Oil, Ecuador and its people [courts]
  Today, a swath of the Ecuadorean Amazon remains contaminated beyond imagining. Neither side disputes the devastation, only who should pay for it. Chevron says it is the state oil company's responsibil In a small, spare courtroom in the Amazon region of Ecuador, Chevron Corp., California's largest company and one of the world's largest oil producers, will soon face a day of reckoning. After 16 years of litigation, a case the company inherited in a merger, Aguinda vs. Texaco Inc., is nearing an end. The legal battle that began in the United States in 1993 and resumed in Ecuador in 2003 has pitted the multinational against an unlikely adversary, a coalition of indigenous tribes and communities. A verdict is expected early next year. The plaintiffs are poised to prevail, and Chevron acknowledges that it is likely to lose.
• 2009/08/26: G&M: Enbridge faces U.S. challenge to [Alberta Clipper] pipeline permit
• 2009/08/24: WarmingLaw: Kansas Environmental Group Renews Fight against Sunflower Coal-Fired Power Plant

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

• 2009/08/26: TechRev: Better Gas-to-Methanol Catalyst -- An improved catalyst could reduce the cost of making methanol from methane
• 2009/08/24: REA: Fight Climate Change Fast -- Changing our energy system doesn't have to occur at a glacial pace
• 2009/08/28: Grist: Big Blue dreams of a big green battery
• 2009/08/28: SolveClimate: America Beats Europe on Clean Energy Funding for 6 Straight Years, and Counting
• 2009/08/26: ECN: EEStor Awards Contract to Polarity Inc. to Produce EESU's Voltage Converter
• 2009/08/26: Reuters: Utility wants to deploy largest grid battery ever
• 2009/08/27: OilDrum: 150 Years of Plenitude: The Story of Oil
• 2009/08/25: Guardian(UK): Islay to be entirely powered by tides
  ScottishPower is to build turbines in the Sound of Islay that will generate enough electricity for the island's 3,500 inhabitants -- and its famous distilleries
• 2009/08/26: BRitholtz: Annotated Copper & Oil
• 2009/08/26: NatureN: Renewable technologies increase energy sprawl -- Biofuels will have the greatest impact on land use and habitat, study finds
• 2009/08/25: Grist: EPA: Chemicals found in Wyo. drinking water might be from fracking
• 2009/08/26: NRDC:SwitchBoard: How toxic are hydraulic fracturing fluids? Ask Louisiana.
• 2009/08/26: TreeHugger: Is It Time to Consider 'Energy Sprawl' When Discussing Future Energy & Climate Policy?
• 2009/08/25: USAToday: Power is shut off as bills pile up -- More Americans are having their power shut off as the weak economy makes it harder to pay bills
• 2009/08/24: NYT:GreenInc: A Rare Peek at Green Energy Economics
• 2009/08/24: AutoBG: Future tense: How a solar-hydrogen economy could provide us with all the energy we need
• 2009/08/24: PhysOrg: How a Solar-Hydrogen Economy Could Supply the World's Energy Needs
  As the world's oil supply continues to dry out every day, the question of what will replace oil and other fossil fuels is becoming more and more urgent. According to the World Coal Institute, at the present rate of consumption, coal will run out in 130 years, natural gas in 60 years, and oil in 42 years. Around the world, researchers are investigating alternative energy technologies with encouraging progress - but the question still remains: which source(s) will prove to be most efficient and sustainable in 30, 50, or 100 years from now?
• 2009/08/24: TreeHugger: Natural Gas Has Our Back: Last Shot For A Better Climate Bill This Year
• 2009/08/24: BBerg: U.S. Refining May Drop by a Quarter on Climate Bill, API Says
• 2009/08/24: OilDrum: New World Model -- EROEI issues
• 2009/08/24: WSJ:EnvCap: Future Shock: Refiners' Visions of Doom
• 2009/08/24: SolveClimate: Electric Energy Storage: Digging the Foundations (Part I)
• 2009/08/23: NakedCapitalism: China Leading World in Green Energy

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/08/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Does Wind Need Energy Storage?
• 2009/08/26: PlanetArk: German Wind Power Moves Further Out To Sea

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/08/28: Grist: On the faux mathematics of large decisions -- Could we replace the nation's pavement with solar panels?
• 2009/08/28: PhysOrg: 43 percent: New solar power world record
  Australian and US solar cell researchers have achieved the highest efficiency for solar power, setting a new world record of 43 per cent of sunlight converted into electricity
• 2009/08/28: BendBulletin: Area solar activity heats up -- Energy companies eye sites near Christmas Valley
• 2009/08/27: PlanetArk: LDK To Develop Solar Projects In China
• 2009/08/27: PlanetArk: [Chinese solar-cell maker] Canadian Solar Inc. To Build 500 MW Project In China
• 2009/08/27: TreeHugger: Another 100 MW+ Solar Power Plant Being Built in China
• 2009/08/25: CPN: Even Small Towns Are Looking to Go Solar Power
• 2009/08/25: NatGeo: Plugging Into the Sun -- Sunlight bathes us in far more energy than we could ever need -- if we could just catch enough.
• 2009/08/24: EurActiv: Solar thermal energy 'on the up'
  Solar thermal heating experienced record growth rates worldwide in 2007, driven strongly by China. But the EU's new Renewable Energy Directive is expected to boost demand even further in Europe, a new report from the Worldwatch Institute argues.
• 2009/08/24: PlanetArk: Chevron building solar-steam plant
• 2009/08/23: Reuters: Europe's [Desertec] Saharan power plan: miracle or mirage?/A>
• 2009/08/24: TreeHugger: 53 MW Thin-Film Solar Power Plant Now Germany's Largest
• 2009/08/10: UTexas: Lower-cost solar cells to be printed like newspaper, painted on rooftops

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/08/27: BNC: Climate crisis update and cash for coal clunkers
• 2009/08/30: NYT: Clash in Alabama Over Tennessee Coal Ash
• 2009/08/28: PlanetArk: Recession Speeds Coal's Long-Term Decline
  Declining industrial electricity demand and an abundance of cheap natural gas will threaten coal's status as the dominant U.S. fuel to generate electric power, even after the economic recession ends.
• 2009/08/27: Grist: Persistence stops a train -- and global warming slowed
  A massive new rail line planned to move millions of tons of low-grade coal from northeastern Wyoming to the Midwest has been stopped. For more than nine years Sierra Club and our allies have been battling plans by Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. (DM&E) to build this new coal line, and late yesterday DM&E announced the project is "on hold." The $6 billion rail line would have carried 100 million tons of coal annually, enough to power about 50 coal plants.
• 2009/08/28: Grist: Coalfield uprising and heroes need national defense, green jobs
• 2009/08/26: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Duke Study Details the Health Hazards of Coal Ash
• 2009/08/25: WVGazette:CT: WVDEP loses another coal mine pollution case
• 2009/08/25: Grist: Study details health risks from TVA's spilled coal ash
• 2009/08/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: TVA Coal Ash Costs Could Exceed $3 Billion
• 2009/08/24: ChattanoogaTimesFP: TVA may shutter aging coal-fired plants
  True to their name, some of TVA's fossil plants could become extinct dinosaurs for the nation's biggest government utility within the next five years. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the oldest fleet of coal plants in the South, is looking at shutting down its oldest coal-fired power generation. TVA President Tom Kilgore said last week that the utility is studying whether it should close its John Sevier Fossil Plant near Rogersville, Tenn., and the oldest six units of the Widows Creek Fossil Plant near Stevenson, Ala. A federal judge has ordered TVA to install more than $1 billion in pollution upgrades on the plants by the end of 2013. But TVA has yet to budget any money for the improvements

Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/08/28: PlanetArk: EU Imports More Argentine Biodiesel: [says Swiss-German biodiesel producer] Biopetrol
• 2009/08/28: OilDrum: Another Biofuel Scam?
• 2009/08/27: SciDaily: Rejected Watermelons: The Newest Renewable Energy Source
• 2009/08/26: PlanetArk: Husky To Get Subsidy For Ethanol Plant [in Minnedosa, Manitoba]
• 2009/08/25: SolveClimate: Expiring Tax Credits Imperil America's Booming Biomass Industry
• 2009/08/24: CSM: Palm oil paradox -- Meeting the demand for the ecofriendly fuel means burning rain forests. A new network offers a better way.
• 2009/08/24: BostonGlobe: Fueling speculation -- Researchers at Cambridge firm [Joule Biotech] are tight-lipped about their secret ingredient for turning sunlight into liquid energy

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/08/27: TreeHugger: The Next Nuclear Renaissance is Already Underway
• 2009/08/26: NEIMag: Nuclear in the UK -- where did it go wrong?
• 2009/08/25: EnergyBulletin: Nuclear Weapons and 'Fourth Generation' Nuclear Power
• 2009/08/24: WSJ:EnvCap: China Beachhead: BYD's Electric Car and The Clean-Energy Future

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2009/08/28: GreenChipStocks: Reading Peak Oil Deniers Is a Waste of Time -- 3 Peak Oil Bombs Drop
• 2009/08/26: ClimateP: Open challenge to long-wrong Michael Lynch, who predicted back in 1996 "real oil prices FLAT for the next two decades": I'll take your bet on $30 oil.
• 2009/08/23: CCurrents: Peak Oil And The Generation Gap
• 2009/08/23: SA: Mexico's Declining Oil Production: Clarion Call for Cantarell
• 2009/08/25: OLJ: Peak oil and climate change -- drowning in rhetoric
• 2009/08/24: WSJ:EnvCap: Yergin: Forget Peak Oil, Demand Is the Key To Crude's Future

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

• 2009/08/29: FuturePundit: Ultracapacitors To Cut Plug-In Hybrid Car Costs
• 2009/08/29: NYT: Making Way for Electric Cars
• 2009/08/28: AutoBG: Japanese companies plan to start recycling used automotive lithium ion batteries
• 2009/08/27: PlanetArk: Mitsubishi Heavy To Make lithium-Ion Batteries
• 2009/08/26: PhysOrg: Think electric car set to roll out of Norway [to Finland]: report
• 2009/08/26: AutoBG: Better Place to trial battery-swapping taxis in Tokyo
• 2009/08/26: Guardian(UK): Toyota to suspend production line
  Toyota is to suspend one of its production lines in Japan for more than a year amid fears that it may also impose cutbacks at its factory in Derbyshire. The Japanese carmaker is scaling back its production following the global plunge in sales, with reports suggesting it may cut its overall capacity by up to 1m vehicles a year.
• 2009/08/24: CommunityPress: Twist of fate: horse and buggies replacing cars
• 2009/08/25: AutoBG: Report: Tesla Model S could have 95 kWh battery pack
• 2009/08/24: TreeHugger: BYD to Sell a Limited Number of E6 Electric Cars in the U.S. Starting in 2010
• 2009/08/23: BNC: Recent nuclear power cost estimates -- separating fact from myth

  Cash-for-Clunkers, aka Scrappage, Plans are being legislated and argued around the world:

• 2009/08/29: QuarkSoup: Cash for Clunkers Wrap-up
• 2009/08/27: ClimateP: Cash for Clunkers is a double economic stimulus that pays for itself in oil savings so CO2 savings are free
• 2009/08/27: CalcRisk: Report: Car Sales Slump 11% Below June Levels
• 2009/08/27: AutoBG: Cash For Clunkers final numbers: 690,000 vehicles sold; $2.8 billion used; 24.9 mpg average for the new cars
• 2009/08/27: CBC: U.S. cash-for-clunkers spurs almost 700,000 car sales
• 2009/08/26: CalcRisk: New Hampshire: The Clunker State
• 2009/08/24: EnvEcon: One Stone (Cash for Clunkers), Two Birds (Stimulus and the Environment) and Inefficiency

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/08/27: EnvFin: Investors' votes add climate pressure on companies
• 2009/08/26: BizGreen: Shareholders crank up demand for climate change action
  Record proxy season sees 68 climate change-related shareholder resolutions filed, almost half of which proved successful
• 2009/08/25: SolveClimate: World's Top 100 Companies Need to Double Emissions Cuts, Study Finds

  Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2009/08/24: CJRD: Forbes on ExxonMobil: "Green Company of the Year" Really?
• 2009/08/27: Guardian(UK): The tactics of these rogue climate elements must not succeed
  Corporate lobbyists sow doubt about science and greenwash their clients. Climate Camp is teaching the skills to expose them

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

• 2009/08/28: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for August 28: Climate change causing severe food shortages in Nepal
• 2009/08/27: ClimateP: Energy and Climate News for August 27: Solar panels drop sharply in price
• 2009/08/26: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for August 26: Senators embark on climate change tours of Arctic; an oil field powered by concentrated solar power?
• 2009/08/25: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for August 25th: India unveils domestic cap and trade system; Chinese legislature takes up climate change for first time
• 2009/08/24: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for August 24th: Updates on energy-efficient mortgages and Europe's huge Saharan solar power plan

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/08/26: Tamino: Loony bin
• 2009/08/28: DeSmogBlog: RealClimate Analysis Proves Plimer's Imbecility
• 2009/08/28: GreenGrok: Lomborg's Cool Take on Global Warming
• 2009/08/28: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Dating and Demonstrating: New Astroturf Tactic?
• 2009/08/27: GreenFyre: Why real skeptics detest global warming Deniers
• 2009/08/28: Australian: Renewables target will take 100 years - Dashwood
  ExxxonMobil Australia chairman John Dashwood has expressed scepticism at federal laws requiring 20 per cent of electricity be sourced from renewable sources by 2020, saying such a transformation was likely to take 100 years.
• 2009/08/25: Deltoid: Plimer's bluff called
• 2009/08/25: TreeHugger: Revealed: 5 "Grassroots" Groups Funded by Dirty Energy
• 2009/08/24: DeSmogBlog: Are Climate Deniers Crazy?
• 2009/08/25: BBerg: Exxon Works Up New Recipe for Frying the Planet: Eric Pooley
• 2009/08/24: DeepClimate: Ian Plimer, ABC and the lie that won't go away
• 2009/08/24: SOSD: Five Questions -- Sherry Seethaler defines the problem
• 2009/08/24: ClimateP: Obama's science adviser [Jon Holdren] targeted by smear campaign
• 2009/08/24: RealClimate: Plimer's homework assignment
• 2009/08/24: BCLSB: Fun With Karl Popper
• 2009/08/24: ClimateSight: Logic
• 2009/08/22: WWW: Psycho Analysis of A Climate Skeptic
• 2009/08/17: PRWatch: Elmendorf Strategies and the Carbon Lobby

  The US Chamber of Commerce is trying to inveigle free publicity for their denial:

• 2009/08/27: DeSmogBlog: US Chamber of Commerce Wants their Day in Court on Climate Science
• 2009/08/28: ArsTechnica: Why putting climate change on trial is a terrible idea
  The US Chamber of Commerce is upset that the EPA has chosen to regulate CO2 emissions as a pollutant, and are calling for a public trial on both the policy decision and the science behind it. It's hard to imagine a worse way to help clarify the status of climate science.
• 2009/08/25: NYT:CW: Chamber Threatens Lawsuit if EPA Rejects Climate Science 'Trial'
• 2009/08/26: TP:WR: Chamber Of Commerce Planning 'All-Out Lobbying Effort' Against Increased Corporate Accountability
• 2009/08/26: TP:WR: 'Monkey Trial' Petition Tells EPA To 'Eliminate The Taint' Or 'Withdraw The Endangerment Proposal Entirely'
• 2009/08/25: NatureTGB: Industry [U.S. Chamber of Commerce] wants to try climate change
• 2009/08/25: KSJT: LATimes: Oh, great move. US Chamber of Commerce decides to take global warming to court
• 2009/08/25: ClimateP: Memo to Alcoa, Kodak, IBM, Nike, Pepsi, Toyota et al.: Luddite U.S. Chamber of Commerce seeks "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" on global warming
• 2009/08/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate "Scopes" Trial: The Chamber Makes A Monkey Of Itself
• 2009/08/25: WarmingLaw: But Do They Know the Evolutionists Won? [the Scopes trial]
• 2009/08/25: LA Times: U.S. Chamber of Commerce seeks trial on global warming
  The business lobby, hoping to fend off potentially sweeping emission limits, wants the EPA to hold a 'Scopes'-like hearing on the evidence that climate change is man-made.
• 2009/08/25: TP:WR: The 'Voice Of Business' Calls For 'Scopes Monkey Trial' On Science Of Climate Change

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2009/08/27: PRWatch: Faceless Coal
• 2009/08/26: PRWatch: Another Day, Another Coal Industry Front Group
• 2009/08/28: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Eyes for Frosty: Coal Industry's Creepy Coloring Book
• 2009/08/28: DeSmogBlog: FACES: Coal Industry Buying "Friends" Off the Shelf
• 2009/08/27: TP:WR: The Real FACES of Coal: Adfero's Shadowy GOP Beltway Astroturf Operatives
• 2009/08/27: Grist: FACES of Coal are iStockphotos?!
• 2009/08/27: TreeHugger: Outed! FACES of Coal Are Just Stock Photos
• 2009/08/26: DeSmogBlog: New "Grassroots" Pro-Coal Group backed by K-Street PR Firm
• 2009/08/24: DeSmogBlog: Coal Industry Launches New Astroturf Group

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/08/28: Guardian(UK): TckTckTck: It's not too late to build a safer world
• 2009/08/28: CSW: A new user-friendly computer tool for visualizing climate change [ClimateWizard]
• 2009/08/27: MTobis: Maibach Public Outreach Talk
• 2009/08/27: BBC: Hijacked by climate change? What emerges is a picture of decline that goes way, way beyond climate change
• 2009/08/26: JQuiggin: Two degrees of warming
• 2009/08/27: TreeHugger: How Hot, Wet & Dry Will the US Become Because of Climate Change? Climate Wizard Has the Answer!
• 2009/08/25: TreeHugger: Do We Need a 'Dow Jones' Index To Track Climate Change?
• 2009/08/25: IJI: You are in a maze of twisting little think-tanks, all different [SW tool]
• 2009/08/24: Yale360: A 'Dow Jones' For Climate: The Case for a Warming Index
• 2009/08/24: KSJT: San Diego Union-Tribune: Hey, it's only a theory? And other foibles when the public meets science
• 2009/08/24: PlanetArk: Encyclopedia of Life grows; clues on ageing, pests
• 2009/08/24: Grist: Let's get non-physical -- Bits o' carbon: digital downloads are greener than CDs
• 2009/08/24: TreeHugger: Fight Global Warming: Support Your Neighborhood Stores
• 2009/08/24: HotTopic: A strong voice from Kiribati

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

• WDCGG: The World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases
• Greta Browne's Climate Walk
• For all the grandchildren [blog]
• TckTckTck
• ECN: Electric Car News
• CACOR: Canadian Association for the Club of Rome
• e!Science -- Earth & Climate
• CCP: CO2 Capture Project
• EOL: Encyclopedia of Life
• IPCC: Frequently Asked Questions [WG1 - 2007]
• Climate4You
• Nature Science Update
• Science Daily
• Eureka Alert
• CDIAC CO2 Info Analysis Centre

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

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

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences." -Winston Churchill, 1936

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