Another Week of GW News, December 16, 2012

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

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

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Another Week of Anthropocene Antics

Information Overload is Pattern Recognition

December 16, 2012

• Chuckles, COP19+, Post-Doha, Post-AGU, AR5 Leak
• 1990 Projections, Detectors, Retrospectives, Subsidies, WB, Cook
• Fukushima Note, Fukushima News
• Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Fisheries, Food Prices, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Clouds, Paleoclimate
• Oceans, Biosphere, Extinctions, Overshoot, Volcanoes, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Notable Weather, New Weather, Wildfires, Corals
• Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Adaptation
• Journals, Deepwater Special, Other Docs, Misc. Science
• DIY Science, Models, Open Science, Hansen, Wilson, Mahlman
• International Politics: Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Bank Tax, Hormuz, South China Sea
• Rare Earths, Security, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Groundwater, Education, Predictions
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, Post Sandy, Keystone, Carbon Tax
• Birth Control, Coal Exports, Soot, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Slipper, MDBP, India, China, Japan, Asia, South America
• Canada, Post CNOOC, More Deals?, NorGate, Kinder Morgan, East-West
• Treaties, Liberal, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Sask, Quebec, Canadiana
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Fusion, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
• Business, Insurance, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Misc., Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

 

Laugh. I dare ya:

• 2012/12/13: LA Times: (caroon - Horsey) Blind faith of climate change deniers endangers us all
• 2012/12/10: ERabett: (cartoon - ?) Eli and the Fox
• 2012/12/10: QuarkSoup: (cartoon - Toles) Climate Solution, Year 2060
  

  Looking ahead to COP19 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2012/12/14: IPSNews: A Universal Climate Change Agreement Is Necessary and Possible by Christiana Figueres
• 2012/12/14: DerSpiegel: Rethinking Global Warming -- Experts Call for End to Climate Mega Summits
  Massive UN climate summits have been held for years, but accomplished little. Believing there is almost no chance of securing a global deal on reducing emissions, experts now want to ditch the current system and try something new.
• 2012/12/14: PostMedia: It's official: Harper government withdraws from Kyoto climate agreement
• 2012/12/12: Guardian(UK): China and US hold the key to a new global climate deal
  The world's two biggest emitters face political problems that will make the talks for the next few years difficult
• 2012/12/10: Reuters: Belarus negotiator hints at Kyoto exit, says others could follow
  Belarus, one of three fossil-fuel reliant states outmanoeuvred at Kyoto pact talks by small island states endangered by climate change, said it may consider quitting the process and Ukraine and Kazakhstan may do the same.
• 
  

  Lots of post-Doha chatter:

   

• 2012/12/15: PlanetJ: Doha climate talks: Gateway to hell?
• 2012/12/15: SkS: Doha Climate Summit Ends With No New CO2 Cuts or Funding by John Hartz
• 2012/12/14: Guardian(UK): Why the Doha climate conference was a success by Connie Hedegaard
• 2012/12/13: TripleCrisis: A "low ambition" outcome in Doha
• 2012/12/12: EconView: Just Sayin': It May Already Be Too Late
• 2012/12/12: Guardian(UK): Bangladesh's climate compensation push a ray of light after dismal Doha
• 2012/12/12: NatureN: Words are not enough
  The political inertia that characterizes the world's response to global warming cannot continue. Politicians and policy-makers must follow the climate's lead --- and change.
• 2012/12/12: CDreams: COP18 Failed to Turn Down the Heat -- An appalling abdication of responsibility by world leaders
• 2012/12/12: LoE: Views of Doha
• 2012/12/11: CCurrents: Doha Climate Summit Concludes Without Agreement On Emission Reductions
• 2012/12/08: COP18(Qa): Nations take 'essential' next step in climate change fight
• 2012/12/11: Resilience: Through the Doha Gateway
• 2012/12/11: TheConversation: The Doha deadlock: intellectual property and climate change
• 2012/12/10: CCurrents: The Most Important COP Briefing That No One Ever Heard - Truth, Lies, Racism & Omnicide
• 2012/12/10: DemNow: "Incredibly Disappointed": Civil Groups Decry Weak COP18 Deal amid Deadly Proof of Climate Change
• 2012/12/10: BangorDN: Climate talks: Coasting toward disaster
• 2012/12/10: Reuters: Doha delivers little for poor, climate-hit states
• 2012/12/11: RTCC: Same old story from USA and Obama at UN climate talks
• 2012/12/10: Guardian(UK): The Doha climate talks were a start, but 2015 will be the moment of truth
  With time running out to tackle global warming, sustained global pressure must be put on governments to reach a deal in 2015
• 2012/12/10: Guardian(UK): Doha showed that only domestic policy can drive international co-operation
  A group of leading UK climate legislators responds to the 'modest achievement' made at the Doha conference
• 2012/12/10: Guardian(UK): Doha climate gateway: the reaction
• 2012/12/10: EurActiv: Doha climate change deal clears way for 'damage aid' to poor nations
  Poor countries have won historic recognition of the plight they face from the ravages of climate change, wringing a pledge from rich nations that they will receive funds to repair the "loss and damage" incurred.
• 2012/12/10: EUO: Poland obstructed EU climate ambitions at Doha, activists say
• 2012/12/10: ABC(Au): Doha talks important but more needs to be done
• 2012/12/10: RTCC: Weak Doha climate deal leaves world on pathway to 3°C by 2040
• 2012/12/10: RTCC: COP18 outcome branded 'extremely weak' on short term ambition
• 2012/12/10: ABC(Au): No genuine greenhouse gas cuts from Doha
• 2012/12/10: OilChange: "Still barreling down the highway to a dangerously warming world"
• 2012/12/10: WtD: Gang of four: can developed and developing countries act in concert to avoid a world of 2ºC plus?
• 2012/12/09: QuarkSoup: Another Year Towards an Inverse Ice Age
• 2012/12/09: VV: Changing the political dynamics of greenhouse gas reductions
  

  Post AGU commentary:

• 2012/12/16: JEB: The AGU review 2012
• 2012/12/13: PSinclair: Posed at AGU. "Is Earth F**ked?"
• 2012/12/11: KSJT: One more blast from AGU - Is Earth f**ked?
• 2012/12/11: SEasterbrook: Successful Predictions (AGU 2012 Tyndall Lecture)
• 2012/12/11: CCP: Why Earth and atmospheric scientists are swearing up a storm and getting arrested
• 2012/12/10: TreeHugger: Is Earth F*cked? Scientist Says Yes, and He's Not Even Talking About the Outcome of COP18
• 2012/12/09: ERabett: Ray Pierrehumbert's Tynall Lecture AGU 2012
• 2012/12/09: CAbyss: Dispatch from AGU: Sea Ice and Winter Weather
• 2012/12/09: W&C: Atmospheric Insights from San Francisco [AGU vids]
  

  The Second Draft of the forthcoming IPCC Fifth Assessment Report [AR5] has been leaked with much of the same foofarah as last time:

• 2012/12/14: RealClimate: IPCC draft (redux)
• 2012/12/14: BBC: IPCC critical of climate change report leak
• 2012/12/16: NewAnthropocene: Good News From the Leaked Fifth IPCC Report
• 2012/12/15: ABC(Au): IPCC review process questioned
• 2012/12/14: Independent(UK): Bid to heap blame on sunspots for climate change has backfired
  An attempt by climate sceptics to hijack the latest UN report on global warming by selectively leaking claims that it is caused by sunspots rather than man-made emissions of carbon dioxide has backfired.
• 2012/12/14: P3: More on Watt's Game-Changer
• 2012/12/14: UCSUSA: Early Draft of International Climate Science Report Posted Online
• 2012/12/14: PSinclair: Deniers Reach For Cherry, Come up with Pits
• 2012/12/13: P3: Watts Ridiculous With That
• 2012/12/15: P3: About that IPCC cosmic rays game changer...
• 2012/12/14: Stoat: IPCC report leaked, again
• 2012/12/14: Guardian(UK): Landmark climate change report leaked online
  Draft of IPCC's fifth assessment, due to be published in September 2013, leaked online by climate sceptic Alex Rawls
• 2012/12/14: Maribo: "Game-changing" leak from the IPCC reports? Please.
• 2012/12/14: PSinclair: Cherry Pick Update: How Dumb are These People?
• 2012/12/14: SkS: IPCC Draft Report Leaked, Shows Global Warming is NOT Due to the Sun by dana1981
• 2012/12/14: GReadfearn: IPCC report leaked then cherry-picked
• 2012/12/14: Guardian(UK): Global warming is not due to the sun, confirms leaked IPCC report
• 2012/12/14: QuarkSoup: Hosting IPCC 5AR Second Order Drafts
• 2012/12/14: QuarkSoup: IPCC and Transparency
• 2012/12/14: GLaden: Climate Change Denialists Scolded by IPCC
• 2012/12/14: JEB: The IPCC report in full, in brief
• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Draft IPCC report leaked
• 2012/12/13: DeSmogBlog: Major IPCC Report Draft Leaked Then Cherry-Picked By Climate Sceptics
• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): IPCC draft climate report leaked by sceptics
• 2012/12/13: ERabett: "I could not help myself. It's the Middle East."
  

  "Always an air of surprise":

• 2012/12/10: CBC: UN climate change projections made in 1990 'coming true'
• 2012/12/10: ABC(Au): Climate change predictions confirmed
  A study published in the journal Nature today confirms that the predictions made by scientists from the International Panel on Climate Change are right on target. The report finds that contrary to the tearing down of the science by sceptics, the original projections made by the UN's chief scientific body 20 years ago match the measurable changes in the world's climate.
• 2012/12/10: ABC(Au): Climate change conforming to UN predictions: scientists
  A new report has confirmed the world is warming at a rate consistent with a 22-year-old prediction from the United Nations' science body. In 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast the rate at which temperatures would rise over a 40-year period.
• 
  

  See also the fabulous Crap Detector:

   

• 2012/12/11: P3: TEDx on spotting pseudoscience
  

  A beginning for end of year retrospectives:

• 2012/12/10: GreenGrok: A Year's End Climate Reflection: Approaching the Climate Cliff
  

  Who's getting the subsidies?

• 2012/12/13: CDreams: Costly Oil Subsidies Drag Us Down; Clean Energy Investments Will Build a Healthier Economy
• 2012/12/11: al Jazeera: How to end fossil fuel subsidies without hurting the poor
  Carbon emissions could be cut by as much as 10 per cent by 2050 if all subsidies on fossil fuels were removed.
• 
  

  Calling out the World Bank:

   

• 2012/12/14: Guardian(UK): The World Bank's climate hypocrisy
  Last week, the bank said 4C of global warming 'simply must not be allowed to occur'. This month, it is considering whether to provide financing for a new coal-fired power plant in Mongolia
• 
  

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

   

• 2012/12/16: SkS: Thawing of Permafrost Expected to Cause Significant Additional Global Warming, Not yet Accounted for in Climate Predictions by John Hartz
• 2012/12/14: SkS: IPCC Draft Report Leaked, Shows Global Warming is NOT Due to the Sun by dana1981
• 2012/12/13: SkS: This is Global Warming - A Lesson for Monckton and Co. by dana1981
• 2012/12/12: SkS: 2012 SkS Bi-Weekly News Roundup #9 by John Hartz
• 2012/12/12: SkS: Participate in Citizen Science with the new SkS BOINC team by Steve Brown
• 2012/12/11: SkS: AGU 2012 - Solving the Climate Problem by dana1981
• 2012/12/10: SkS: New research from last week 49/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
• 2012/12/10: SkS: 2012 SkS Bi-Weekly News Roundup #8 by John Hartz
• 2012/12/10: SkS: 2012 SkS Weekly Digest #49 by John Hartz
  

  A note on theFukushima disaster:

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

•  

  Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

   

• 2012/12/16: JapanTimes: WHO downplayed health effects of nuclear crisis on Fukushima residents : German physician
  A German doctor and member of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning physicians' group has criticized a World Health Organization report on the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe for underestimating its impact on human health. In a research paper, Alex Rosen said the WHO report, published in May this year on estimated radiation doses received by residents near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, was compiled mainly by officials related to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which promotes the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. Rosen, a member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, called for an independent assessment based on solid scientific methodology that would examine the health impacts from radioactive fallout released after the Fukushima No. 1 complex suffered three core meltdowns in March 2011.
• 2012/12/15: BBerg: IAEA to Help Japan Decontamination Work After Fukushima Disaster
• 2012/12/14: Guardian(UK): Fukushima operator Tepco admits culpability
  Japanese nuclear plant accepts lack of safety culture and bad habits contributed to world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years
• 2012/12/14: EneNews: Crackdown: Japanese professor's arrest "extremely unjust" - Publicly opposed burning of radioactive debris
• 2012/12/13: BBC: Why Japan's 'Fukushima 50' remain unknown
  Entering the exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant is an unnerving experience. It is, strictly speaking, also illegal. It is an old cliché to say that radiation is invisible. But without a Geiger counter, it would be easy to forget that this is now one of the most contaminated places on Earth. The small village of Tatsuno lies in a valley 15km (9.3 miles) from the plant. In the sunlight, the trees on the hillsides are a riot of yellow and gold. But then I realise the fields were once neat rice paddies. Now the grass and weeds tower over me. On the village main street, the silence is deafening - not a person, car, bike or dog. At one house, washing still flaps in the breeze. And all around me, invisible, in the soil, on the trees, the radiation lingers.
• 2012/12/13: Asahi: Bent rod found at TEPCO's Niigata reactor
  Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Dec. 12 a bent water rod caused two fuel rods to come into contact inside a fuel rod assembly stored in a spent fuel storage pool for the No. 5 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.
• 2012/12/12: DD: 8 companies ordered to stop illegal labor practice at Fukushima nuclear plant - 'We knew it was illegal, but we had no other choice to secure profits'
• 2012/12/12: Asahi: TEPCO unable to locate source of leak in Fukushima reactor
  The operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is grappling to locate the source of a leak of highly radioactive water in the crippled No. 2 reactor, and will continue trying to pinpoint the cause next week. A remote-controlled robot is now scouring the basement of the reactor building that houses the pressure suppression chamber to pinpoint the cause of the leak.
• 2012/12/11: TreeHugger: Heavy-Duty Robot Ready to Clean Up Fukushima
• 2012/12/11: EneNews: Fukushima Worker: Concrete reinforcement of Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 is terribly deteriorating ... now in a "dangerous state" - Cooling system stopped working, men helicoptered in
• 2012/12/11: BBC: Robot 'race' to fix damaged Fukushima nuclear plant
  Japanese company Mitsubishi has unveiled a radiation-resistant robot aimed at cleaning up the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.
• 2012/12/11: JapanTimes: Book reveals human drama in Fukushima No. 1 crisis
• 2012/12/05: Cryptome: Tepco Additional Compensation for Fukushima Voluntary Evacuees
• 2012/12/09: EneNews: NYTimes: Bags of radioactive waste sitting along Fukushima coastline - "There isn't going to be another tsunami" says worker
  

  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

• 2012/12/14: ASI: More from Greenland
• 2012/12/12: ASI: PIOMAS December 2012
• 2012/12/12: ERW: Arctic warming startles the experts
• 2012/12/10: ASI: 2012 Greenland records
  

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2012/12/16: SkS: Thawing of Permafrost Expected to Cause Significant Additional Global Warming, Not yet Accounted for in Climate Predictions by John Hartz
• 2012/12/11: CCP: UNEP report urges IPCC to address permafrost CO2 and CH4 emissions
• 2012/12/10: TP:JR: Permafrost 101: Why We Need To Account For Thawing Ground In Climate Projections
  

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2012/12/13: ONR: Top Officials Meet at ONR as Arctic Changes Quicken
  The Navy's chief of naval research, Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, met this week with leaders from U.S. and Canadian government agencies to address research efforts in the Arctic, in response to dramatic and accelerating changes in summer sea ice coverage.
• 
  

  While in Antarctica:

   

• 2012/12/16: ABC(Au): Ice drill a world first
  A world-first attempt to drill into the ice of inland Antarctica could yield new information about the earth's changing climate. Scientists from Australia, the U.S., France and Denmark will drill a 400 metre deep ice core in the Aurora Basin, about 600 kilometres from Australia's Casey Station. The Australian Antarctic Division's Nick Gales said it would be the first time researchers have drilled so far inland. "This will be the most highly resolved inland core from Antarctica," he said. "This will inform where we go for even older ice as well." The Aurora Basin is thought to contain ice up to three kilometres thick.
• 2012/12/13: BBC: Lake Ellsworth drilling: First images emerge
• 2012/12/12: Eureka: More ice loss through snowfall on Antarctica
• 2012/12/11: BBC: Drilling begins at lake hidden beneath Antarctic
  A British research team in Antarctica has launched a long-awaited project to hunt for life in a lake hidden beneath the ice-sheet. A team of 12 scientists and engineers has begun work at remote Lake Ellsworth. They are using a high-pressure hose and sterilised water at near boiling point to blast a passage through more than two miles of ice. The aim is to analyse ice waters isolated for up to 500,000 years.
• 2012/12/10: BBC: Antarctic 'lost world' to be explored
  Final checks are under way in Antarctica before the launch of a daring attempt to investigate an ancient lake beneath the ice-sheet. Lake Ellsworth lies below ice that is at least two miles (3.2km) thick. Its pitch-black waters have remained isolated and unseen for up to half a million years.
• 
  

  The food crisis is ongoing:

   

• 2012/12/13: al Jazeera: Obesity kills more people than hunger
  Childhood malnutrition was the number one risk factor for early death in 1990, but now it ranks behind obesity.
• 2012/12/12: DD: Drought and economy plague U.S. sheep farmers
• 2012/12/05: American: Jeremy Grantham, Starving for Facts by Vaclav Smil
• 2012/12/10: BPS: Is Mechanical Flame Weeding for Crops Growing in Popularity?
• 2012/12/07: USDA: SNAP Monthly Data
• 2012/12/09: ZeroHedge: Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months
• 2012/12/11: RawStory: Soledad grills Jeff Sessions: 'You hurt people who need food' with food stamp cuts
• 2012/12/11: CBC: Bold thieves empty corn silos at Quebec farm - 465 tonnes of corn missing
  Huge agricultural theft second only to summer's maple syrup heist Quebec provincial police are on the hunt for thieves who managed to get away with close to $140,000 worth of corn from a farm in Saint-Léonard-d'Aston, 130 kilometres northeast of Montreal.
• 2012/12/09: al Jazeera: Debilitating drought devastates Brazil
  The driest conditions in 50 years are wiping out the region's cattle with the threat of 'ghost towns' as ranchers flee.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/12/14: NatureNB: Science advice seldom followed in setting fishing quotas
• 2012/12/13: TheConversation: Do assessments of fish stock sustainability work for consumers?
• 2012/12/14: NYT: Broad Catch Limits Are Put on an Unglamorous but Essential Fish
  Regulators on Friday voted to reduce the harvest of Atlantic menhaden by 20 percent, placing a broad catch limit on a critical fishery that has until now been largely unregulated. A small, oily fish -- also called bunker or pogy -- the Atlantic menhaden is rarely eaten by humans, and little known outside of coastal circles. But for the Atlantic ecosystem as well as commercial and recreational fishermen, it is an essential fish. The question of its management drew hundreds of fishermen, processors and environmentalists to mobilize for a showdown in a windowless ballroom here.
• 2012/12/11: NatureN: Pacific fisheries meet 'fails to end tuna overfishing' -- Conservation body accused of failing to take responsibilities seriously
  

  Food Prices are still problematic:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2012/12/10: AgriMoney: Wheat 50% overvalued - corn to hit three-year low
• 2012/12/10: BWeek: Wheat Set to Climb as Drought Cuts Global Crop, Australia Says
  Wheat prices may climb 20 percent in the year through June as drought threatens crops from the U.S. to Russia, boosting global supply concerns, said last year's second-biggest exporter. The free-on-board Gulf price of U.S. hard-red winter wheat, the so-called world indicator price, may average $360 a metric ton in the year to June 30 from $299 a ton a year earlier, the Canberra-based Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, or Abares, said today. World trade may drop 9.7 percent to 131 million tons on reduced supply, it said.
• 2012/12/11: BBerg: Tightest Corn Crop Since '74 as Goldman Sees Rally: Commodities
  Three consecutive years of smaller U.S. corn harvests are driving inventories of the world's most- consumed grain to a 39-year low and spurring Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to predict that prices will rise near record highs.
• 
  

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

   

• 2012/12/14: al Jazeera: Will Monsanto destroy Mexico's corn?
  Introducing GE corn to Mexico would sound the death knell for the country's precious ecology, argues author.
• 2012/12/14: CDreams: Monsanto Gets Its Way in Ag Bill
• 2012/12/12: ScienceInsider: Chinese Researchers Punished for Role in GM Rice Study
• 2012/12/10: NatureN: China sacks officials over Golden Rice controversy
  Chinese families did not give consent for children to consume genetically modifed rice in the part US-funded study.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/12/15: CCurrents: Dr. Oz and Big Ag Represent the 1% Exploiting the Rest of Humanity - A Conversation with Vandana Shiva
• 2012/12/14: UCSUSA:B: The Misguided Attack on Organically-Grown Foods -- Beyond Oz and EPA
• 2012/12/14: UFZ: Fertile soil doesn't fall from the sky.
  The contribution of bacterial remnants to soil fertility has been underestimated until now
• 2012/12/14: BPA: Global Agricultural Machinery Sales are Strong
• 2012/12/14: FAO: FAO and ACP Countries agree strategic partnership -- Strengthened collaboration against hunger and malnutrition
• 2012/12/10: FAO: Neglected crops need a rethink - can help world face the food security challenges of the future, says Graziano da Silva
  "We must not lose track of our agricultural and culinary roots, nor the lore and wisdom of our ancestors," says FAO chief
• 2012/12/12: TheConversation: Climate change action needs forests and farms working together
• 2012/12/11: ABC(Au): International interest in greenhouse that grows vegetables with salt water
• 2012/12/11: Eureka: Dead or alive? A new test to determine viability of soybean rust spores
• 2012/12/10: CBC: Food security institute launched
  PotashCorp president Bill Doyle poses for a picture with University of Saskatchewan president Ilene Busch-Vishniac at an announcement for a new food supply institute. PotashCorp president Bill Doyle poses for a picture with University of Saskatchewan president Ilene Busch-Vishniac at an announcement for a new food supply institute. (Jennifer Quesnel/CBC) A new centre, dubbed the Global Institute for Food Security, is being developed at the University of Saskatchewan to look at food supply as a growing world population needs to be fed. The institute, based at the university in Saskatoon, will look at everything from boosting crop yields to government agricultural policies.
• 
  

  In the Western Pacific, Cyclone Evan zapped Samoa is now heading for Fiji at Cat 4:

   

• 2012/12/16: ABC(Au): Fiji makes final preparations for [Cat 4] Cyclone Evan's arrival
  Fiji is preparing for strong winds and flooding as the first impacts of Tropical Cyclone Evan are felt in the Pacific Island country. After leaving a destructive path in Samoa last week, the category four system is bearing down on Fiji tonight. Evan is 480 kilometres wide and packing winds of 230 kilometres per hour, making it the strongest cyclone to threaten the country in 20 years.
• 2012/12/16: ABC(Au): Cyclone Evan intensifies on approach to Fiji
• 2012/12/16: al Jazeera: One country cleans up while another prepares
  Cyclone Evan ravaged Samoa and is now expected to strengthen as it heads toward Fiji
• 2012/12/15: Wunderground: Category 3 Cyclone Evan leaves Samoa, heads for Fiji
• 2012/12/15: ABC(Au): Fijians prepare for 'extremely bad' Cyclone Evan
  Fijians living in low-lying areas are being urged to move to evacuation centres on higher ground as Cyclone Evan heads for the country after leaving a trail of destruction in Samoa. Meteorological services across the Pacific are keeping a close eye on the intensifying system which is currently off the north-west coast of Samoa and moving west at around 15 kilometres an hour. It is expected to slam into Fiji on Sunday night with winds gusts of up to 230 kilometres per hour. In Samoa the confirmed death toll from Evan has risen to three, with another seven people missing and feared dead after being swept away when Apia's main river burst its banks.
• 2012/12/15: al Jazeera: Fiji braces for Cyclone Evan
  People across island nation prepare for cyclone which is expected to make landfall in coming hours.
• 2012/12/15: ABC(Au): Fiji braces for strengthening Cyclone Evan
  Evacuations have begun in Fiji ahead of the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Evan which has caused widespread damage in Samoa. The cyclone expected to hit Fiji on Sunday is forecast to intensify into a category four or five storm as it approaches.
• 2012/12/15: ABC(Au): Cyclone-ravaged Samoa declares state of disaster
• 2012/12/14: NASA: NASA Sees Tropical Cyclone Evan Batter and Drench Samoan Islands
• 2012/12/14: BBC: Cyclone Evan rips through Samoa...
• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Disaster declared after deadly Samoan cyclone
  The Samoan government has declared a state of disaster after Cyclone Evan ravaged the South Pacific nation, destroying buildings and causing flash floods. Police in Samoa say a number of children are presumed to have drowned after being swept away in a flooded river after the cyclone hit. Evan made landfall yesterday and caused widespread damage across the country, killing at least two people, cutting power, causing flooding and ripping trees out of the ground.
• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Children feared swept away in Samoan cyclone
  Police in Samoa say a number of children are presumed to have drowned after being swept away in a flooded river when Cyclone Evan hit the South Pacific nation. The cyclone made landfall yesterday and caused widespread damage across the country, killing at least two people, cutting power, causing flooding and ripping trees out of the ground. Locals say it is the worst storm to hit the region in recent years and a state of disaster has been declared. There are now fears the storm could intensify to a category five cyclone as it tracks across the north of Tonga and then moves onto Fiji.
• 2012/12/13: CNN: 2 deaths reported as Cyclone Evan rips through Samoan islands
• 2012/12/13: al Jazeera: Tropical Cyclone Evan hits Samoa
  The first named storm of the South Pacific cyclone season triggers flooding and structural damage
• 2012/12/13: ABC(Au): Samoa on alert as Tropical Cyclone Evan approaches
  Storm, hurricane and flood warnings have been issued for Samoa as Tropical Cyclone Evan moves closer to the island group. Cyclone Evan emerged yesterday when a tropical depression deepened 300km southwest of Apia and moved eastward toward the city.
• 2012/12/13: Wunderground: Category 2 Evan batters Samoa, killing two
• 2012/12/13: Eureka: NASA sees intensifying tropical cyclone moving over Samoan Islands
• 2012/12/12: Eureka: NASA sees newborn Tropical Storm Evan causing trouble for American Samoa
  

  The Phillipines are still reeling from super Typhoon Bopha:

   

• 2012/12/16: CNN: Death toll from Typhoon Bopha tops 1,000 in the Philippines [844+ still missing, 1.2 million families displaced]
  The chances of finding people alive dim with each passing day - More than 844 are still missing - Among them are hundreds of fishermen - Bopha is the deadliest storm to hit the country this year
• 2012/12/15: BBC: Typhoon Bopha: Philippines storm toll passes 1,000
  The number of people killed after Typhoon Bopha struck the southern Philippines has risen to more than 1,000, officials say. With nearly 850 people still missing, the toll is likely to rise further, Civil Defence chief Benito Ramos said.
• 2012/12/12: ABC(Au): Aid agencies rush in after Typhoon Bopha
  Hundreds of thousands of people in the Philippines are still in need of emergency help more than a week after Typhoon Bopha slammed into the southern island of Mindanao. Typhoon Bopha killed 714 people and caused crop damage worth US$250 million when it hit on Tuesday last week. Nearly 900 people are unaccounted for and about 2,000 were injured, the national disaster agency said.
• 2012/12/11: CNN: Philippine toll from typhoon above 700 and likely to rise, authorities say
  The numbers of dead and missing are likely to rise further, an official warns - Typhoon Bopha has so far killed 714 people in the Philippines - Another 890 people are missing, including hundreds of fishermen - Hundreds of thousands of survivors have been severely affected by the destruction
• 2012/12/10: Eureka: NASA satellites see Typhoon Bopha fizzle over weekend
• 2012/12/11: al Jazeera: Philippine typhoon toll passes 700
  Hundreds missing and thousands displaced as government struggles to cope in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha.
• 2012/12/11: MODIS: Typhoon Bopha (26W) returning to the Philippines
• 2012/12/10: UN: Philippines: UN seeks $65 million to provide lifesaving aid to survivors of Typhoon Bopha
• 2012/12/10: ABC(Au): Philippines declares 'state of national calamity'
• 2012/12/10: al Jazeera: Typhoon-hit Philippines appeals for help
  Government and UN ask international community to help the victims of Typhoon Bopha, as death toll rises to nearly 650. The Philippine government and the United Nations are launching a global appeal to help the victims of Typhoon Bopha, as the toll continues to climb, while hundreds of people are still missing after the storm devastated the south of the country. At least 650 people are killed, while millions are left homeless and in desperate need of food aid and other basic goods, the country's disaster chief in Manila told Al Jazeera. Benito Ramos said that 647 bodies had been found and 900 people were still missing, including hundreds of fishermen.
• 2012/12/09: Guardian(UK): Philippine typhoon missing soars to 900
  Fears for fishermen after Typhoon Bopha leaves 600 dead and nearly 1,000 missing as flash floods sweep southern Philippines

• In the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Storm Claudia stayed away from land and faded:

• 2012/12/14: MODIS: Tropical Cyclone Claudia (03S) in the Indian Ocean
• 2012/12/10: Eureka: NASA gets eyeballed from Cyclone Claudia
  

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2012/12/14: IsaacHeld: 33. Can we trust simulations of Tropical Cyclone statistics in global models?
• 2012/12/12: ABC(Au): Bureau warns of growing cyclone threat
  The Bureau of Meteorology says the risk of cyclone activity along Western Australia's north-west coast will increase in the week before Christmas. The cyclone season began on November 1. The bureau's outlook is for about five tropical cyclones to form off the WA coast this season, including one or two that could hit the mainland.
• 2012/12/06: Wunderground:SO: Reflections on a surreal superstorm and the 2012 hurricane season
  

  As for GHGs:

• 2012/12/14: Guardian(UK): Imports drive up UK carbon emissions
  CO2 footprint grew 10% from 2009 to 2010, reversing a 19% decline the previous year
• 
  

  And the temperature record:

   

• 2012/12/15: Moyhu: November GISS Temp unchanged from October
• 2012/12/13: TP:JR: Mother Nature Is Just Getting Warmed Up: Record-Smashing Early December Assures 2012 Will Be Hottest In U.S. History
• 2012/12/13: Tamino: Global Temperature Update
• 2012/12/12: CapClimate: Spectacularly Warm Start to December in U.S. -- Above-Average Temperatures From Coast to Coast
  

  Clouds are one of the major uncertainties in climate. Much research revolves around them:

• 2012/12/14: Guardian(UK): Creating clouds in the lab to better understand climate
  

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2012/12/14: SciAm:TAA: Were Weirdo Ediacarans Really Lichens, Fungi, and Slime Molds?
• 2012/12/09: Dosbat: Something Wicked This Way Comes [PETM]
  

  And the State of the Oceans:

• 2012/12/11: KSDK: 12 miles of dead squid wash ashore
• 2012/12/11: IOTD: Sea Ice Skylights Spur Phytoplankton Blooms
  

  And the State of the Biosphere:

• 2012/12/14: SciNow: Panama Forest Boasts Tens of Thousands of Arthropod Species
• 2012/12/13: NatureN: Jungle search gives global count of arthropods
  Survey of a Panamanian rainforest puts number of species worldwide at six million.
• 2012/12/12: Guardian(UK): Insecticide regulators ignoring risk to bees, say MPs
  A parliamentary inquiry has uncovered evidence that links widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides to decline in bees
• 2012/12/13: CDreams: Study Identifies 15 Top Threats to Biodiversity
  'Most of the effects we have on the natural environment continue to give rise to negative consequences for biodiversity.'
• 
  

  What's new on the extinction front?

   

• 2012/12/15: CBC:Q&Q: Planet Without Apes
• 2012/12/14: CBC: Primatologist warns of possible great ape extinction
• 2012/12/14: CBC: Endangered Sumatran elephant found dead in Indonesia -- 17th case on island in nine months
• 2012/12/12: BBC: Wildlife crime profound threat to nations, says report
  The global illegal trade in wildlife is worth $19bn (£12bn) a year and is threatening the stability of some governments according to new research. Carried out for conservation group WWF, a report highlights a "new wave" of organised wildlife crime by armed groups operating across borders. It says funds from trafficking are being used to finance civil conflicts.
• 2012/12/13: TheConversation: Australian endangered species: Regent Honeyeater
• 2012/12/13: TheConversation: Threatened species: we're failing on morality and policy
• 2012/12/12: CDreams: WWF: Efforts to Halt $19 Billion Illegal Wildlife Trade Have Failed -- Endangered species beng slaughtered 'on a massive scale'
• 2012/12/01: USC: Hurtling Toward a Planet Without Apes
  Great apes, our closest relatives, could face extinction within our lifetime, USC biologist Craig Stanford warns in a book that will be published next week. The four species of great apes -- chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos and gorillas --are being decimated through disease, loss of habitat, regional political instability and even consumption as "bushmeat." Already endangered, our closest evolutionary cousins could disappear within a generation, Stanford said.
• 2012/12/10: BBC: South Africa has signed a deal with Vietnam to help curb the rising number of illegally slaughtered rhinos, officials announced on Monday
  

  Assertions of Overshoot:

• 2012/12/15: TP:JR: Report: Humanity Has Overshot The Earth's Biocapacity
  

  What's up with volcanoes this week?

• 2012/12/13: IOTD: Activity at Shiveluch
• 2012/12/10: IOTD: Plume rises from Ulawun, PNG
  

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2012/12/03: TCBH: Security Obsession Drives 100 Scientists from NASA: Top Security Clearance Needed to Help Steer the Curiosity Rover?
  

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2012/12/12: NatureN: Polar research: Trouble bares its claws -- Crabs invading the Antarctic continental shelf could deal a crushing blow to a rare ecosystem
• 2012/12/05: TCBH: The TCBH! Climate Change Report: A Palm Tree Grows Outside Philadelphia
• 2012/12/14: UKISS: One of the Unknown Unknowns revealed?
  

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2012/12/13: BBC: Ash fungus genetic data released
• 2012/12/11: CDreams: Study: World's Mighty Giants Dying off at Alarming Rate
• 2012/12/11: BBC: Ash dieback: Chalara fungus 'originated in Asia'
  An increasing body of evidence suggests that ash dieback - the disease which has killed trees across Europe and is now in Britain - originated in Japan.
• 2012/12/11: TheConversation: The end of big trees?
• 2012/12/10: Grist: The giving tree: Agroforests can heal food systems and fight climate change
• 2012/12/10: Eureka: As Amazon urbanizes, rural fires burn unchecked -- Fewer farmers plus more roads and drought bring increased risk
  

  This week in notable weather:

• 2012/12/12: ABC(Au): Houses flooded as storm lashes Collie
  Residents in Perth and the South West are being warned to prepare for further severe weather as a second storm front in less than 24 hours lashes the WA region. A number of homes in Collie, 200 kilometres south-east of Perth, are being evacuated as heavy rain causes flash flooding in the town. Water is flowing down its streets and so far several houses have been inundated. Shire chief executive Jason Whiteaker says the rain is not easing.
• 2012/12/12: ABC(Au): Flooding and storm damage - WA
  A storm has caused overnight flooding and property damage in Mandurah and Rockingham. The Weather Bureau says more bad weather can be expected across South West WA, including Perth, in the coming hours. Minor flooding is possible.
• 2012/12/11: Wunderground: Dallas beats Chicago for first snow of the season; record snowless streak in Chicago
• 2012/12/10: DerSpiegel: Heavy Snowfall -- Winter Weather Brings Europe to a Standstill
  Winter arrived to much of Europe over the weekend as heavy snowfall blanketed the Balkans and Germany came to a standstill. At least six deaths were reported in southwestern Europe while Romanians struggled to get to the polls on election day.
• 2012/12/11: al Jazeera: Storm damages houses in South Africa
  Severe weather batters parts of KwaZulu-Natal, bringing large hail stones, torrential rain and strong winds.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/12/12: Wunderground:LG: Arctic Air Masses
  

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2012/12/14: CCentral: Area Burned By U.S. Wildfires Expected to Double by 2050
• 2012/12/12: Grist: 2012 saw the fewest wildfires in a decade -- but the second-most acres burned ever
• 2012/12/12: MODIS: Fires and smoke in eastern Australia
• 2012/12/16: ABC(Au): A grass fire is burning out of control near Young in south-western New South Wales
• 2012/12/11: ABC(Au): Stradbroke residents on fire evacuation alert
  Fire crews are struggling to control a major blaze on North Stradbroke Island off Brisbane, with anxious Amity Point residents being asked to prepare to evacuate. It is burning in inaccessible land about two kilometres south of Amity Point and heading north, closer to homes.
• 
  

  Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:

   

• 2012/12/11: CoralCOE: Scary news for corals -- from the Ice Age
• 2012/12/11: ABC(Au): Reefs more resistant to acidification: researchers
  

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2012/12/11: ABC(Au): Sea butterflies show signs of acidification
  

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2012/12/14: FaGP: Lednik Karaugom Glacier Retreat Caucasus Mountains, Russia
• 2012/12/15: DeSmogBlog: Gary Braasch Photos: The Shrinking of India's Precious Gangotri Glacier
• 2012/12/10: FaGP: Stave Glacier Retreat, British Columbia
  

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2012/12/13: UKISS: more snowfall in Antarctica = more sea level rise, not less
• 2012/12/12: Deltoid: Sea level rise acceleration
  

  These 100, 200, 500 year deluges are becoming all too frequent:

• 2012/12/13: ABC(Au): Flooded Collie given storm reprieve
  The flooded Western Australian town of Collie has been given a reprieve, with heavy storms clearing overnight. In just 12 hours yesterday, more than 126 millimetres fell on the town, which is 200 kilometres south of Perth, in what forecasters are describing as a once-in-a-century event.
• 2012/12/13: ABC(Au): Strange weather caused by combination of factors
  The Weather Bureau says this week's unseasonal downpours in Perth and the South West are being caused by a combination of factors, including near record sea surface temperatures. In October, the ocean off the WA coast recorded the second warmest temperature since records began in 1900.
• 
  

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

   

• 2012/12/14: Grist: Mississippi River faces shipping closure as water levels drop
• 2012/12/14: CDreams: How the Mighty (Mississippi) Has Fallen: Historic Drought Plagues US
  Continuing drought forecast for already dessicated US as low river levels thwart traffic
• 2012/12/13: HuffPo: U.S. Drought Expands In Kansas, Oklahoma And Texas
• 2012/12/12: ERabett: ??? ,???, ???, ?????? (something in Arabic script)
• 2012/12/12: al Jazeera: Record rainfall for Western Australia -- Whilst eastern Australia basks in the sunshine
• 2012/12/09: JFleck: Dry November
  

  First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
  Second, put a price on carbon
  And elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2012/12/13: CDreams: Our Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign's Math Is Sound
  

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2012/12/16: ABC(Au): China ready to open longest high-speed rail link
  The world's longest high-speed rail route, running from the Chinese capital Beijing to Guangzhou in the south, will open for business on December 26. Travelling at an average speed of 300 kilometres per hour, the line will slash journey times linking Beijing in the north with the country's southern economic hub from 22 hours to just eight hours, the China Daily newspaper said.
• 2012/12/15: TP:JR: Now Is The Time For More Transit In America, Not Less
• 2012/12/12: Grist: Public transit use is up ... again!
• 2012/12/11: CDreams: Democracy and the Ecology of Transportation
• 2012/12/10: LA Times: Use of public transportation jumps
  More Americans are taking public buses and trains, a report finds. L.A. County Metro's ridership rose 1.7% in the first part of the year, and the Riverside Transit Agency's has surged 27% since 2002.
• 2012/12/09: CDreams: Austerity vs. Public Transportation
  

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Nation's first carbon capture plant set to open
  

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2012/12/13: YaleCMF: The Ethics of Geoengineering
• 2012/12/14: HarvardGazette: A notion to cool the skies
• 2012/12/12: ITRacker: Geoengineering as Critical Care
• 2012/12/12: Grist: Geoengineering expert: Tinkering with climate is tempting, also 'kind of insane'
• 2012/12/12: HuffPo: Terraforming the Earth -- Diverting the Missouri River to the West: 'Can' Does Not Mean 'Should' by Peter H. Gleick
  Terraforming is not science fiction but reality: humans are remaking the surface of our planet. We are altering the composition of the planet's atmosphere and fundamentally changing the entire global climate. We remove mountains and dig miles beneath the surface for minerals. We cut down and destroy entire forests. We wipe out species and communities of species. We divert and consume entire rivers. We've stored so much water behind artificial reservoirs that we've actually changed the planet's orbital dynamics (just a wee bit - don't panic). But we've lost sight of a fundamental principle: "can" does not mean "should." Modern civilization must learn that the ability to do something doesn't mean that we actually should, especially in the field of large-scale geoengineering.
• 2012/12/11: SciRecorder: Study: Solar geoengineering may offset Arctic sea ice loss
• 2012/12/11: BUToday: Reengineering the Atmosphere -- ENG alum studies feasibility of aircraft-driven global cooling
• 2012/12/10: PostMedia: Study suggests we could refreeze Arctic but should we?
  A record loss of Arctic sea ice and faster-than-expected melting of Greenland's ice cap made worldwide headlines in 2012, but research published in major science journals in the fall suggest warming in the North doesn't have to continue. We could refreeze the Arctic, proposed a paper in Nature Climate Change. It wouldn't even cost that much, said an affiliated study in Environmental Research Letters. The question is should we?
• 2012/12/10: CBC: Climatologist suggests Arctic Circle be a no-fly zone -- Professor says commercial jets could be major cause of arctic melting
  A climatologist in the United States says the Arctic Circle should be a no-fly zone for major commercial flights. In a new report, Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil engineering at Stanford University in California, says black soot from commercial jets is attracting heat from the sun. Airlines first started flying over the Arctic in 1998, when Russia agreed to allow other countries to fly planes in its airspace.
• 
  

  What's new in conservation?

   

• 2012/12/13: BBC: Cook Islands' shark sanctuary creates world's largest
  

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2012/12/15: Grist:Norfolk, Va., has a plan to keep its head above water
• 2012/12/10: DD: Protecting New Jersey from future storms will cost billions
• 2012/12/10: DD: Study finds the costs of climate change can be mitigated if economic activity moves in response
  

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Dorrington: Oxygen concentration and predator escape abilities are important controls on insect size by Matthew E. Clapham & Jered A. Karr
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (letter$) On flying insect size and Phanerozoic atmospheric oxygen by Graham E. Dorrington
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Serial population extinctions in a small mammal indicate Late Pleistocene ecosystem instability by Selina Brace et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Jurassic mimicry between a hangingfly and a ginkgo from China by Yongjie Wang et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) A common rule for decision making in animal collectives across species by Sara Arganda et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Climate impacts on human settlement and agricultural activities in northern Norway revealed through sediment biogeochemistry by Robert M. D'Anjou et al.
• 2012/12/11: ACP: On the diurnal cycle of urban aerosols, black carbon and the occurrence of new particle formation events in springtime São Paulo, Brazil by J. Backman et al.
• 2012/12/10: ACP: Vertical profiles of aerosol optical properties over central Illinois and comparison with surface and satellite measurements by P. J. Sheridan et al.
• 2012/12/13: ACPD: Multi-satellite aerosol observations in the vicinity of clouds by T. Várnai et al.
• 2012/12/13: ACPD: A net decrease in the Earth's cloud plus aerosol reflectivity during the past 33 yr (1979-2011) and increased solar heating at the surface by J. R. Herman et al.
• 2012/12/11: ACPD: Validation of an hourly resolved global aerosol model in answer to solar electricity generation information needs by M. Schroedter-Homscheidt & A. Oumbe
• 2012/12/11: ACPD: Long-term changes of tropospheric NO2 over megacities derived from multiple satellite instruments by A. Hilboll et al.
• 2012/12/12: Nature: (ab$) Ediacaran life on land by Gregory J. Retallack
• 2012/12/13: ABC(Au): Ediacaran study shakes the tree of life
• 2012/12/14: CP: A re-evaluation of the palaeoclimatic significance of phosphorus variability in speleothems revealed by high-resolution synchrotron micro XRF mapping by S. Frisia et al.
• 2012/12/12: CP: Terminations VI and VIII (? 530 and ? 720 kyr BP) tell us the importance of obliquity and precession in the triggering of deglaciations by F. Parrenin & D. Paillard
• 2012/12/10: CP: Radiative effects of ozone on the climate of a Snowball Earth by J. Yang et al.
• 2012/12/12: CPD: Millennial-scale variability of marine productivity and terrigenous matter supply in the western Bering Sea over the past 180 kyr by J.-R. Riethdorf et al.
• 2012/12/10: CPD: Simulating the temperature and precipitation signal in an Alpine ice core by S. Brönnimann et al.
• 2012/12/14: Science: (ab$) Arthropod Diversity in a Tropical Forest by Yves Basset et al.
• 2012/12/11: NERC:NORA: Land-use change to bioenergy production in Europe: implications for the greenhouse gas balance and soil carbon by Axel Don et al.
• 2012/12/12: NERC:NORA: The UK climate change risk assessment 2012: assessing the impacts on water resources to inform policy makers by Steven D. Wade et al.
• 2012/12/13: NERC:NORA: Very high resolution regional climate model simulations over Greenland: Identifying added value by Philippe Lucas-Picher et al.
• 2012/12/13: NERC:NORA: Greenland uplift and regional sea level changes from ICESat observations and GIA modelling by G. Spada et al.
• 2012/12/13: NERC:NORA: Timing and origin of recent regional ice-mass loss in Greenland by Ingo Sasgen et al.
• 2012/12/13: NERC:NORA: The global carbon budget 1959-2011 by C. Le Quéré et al.
• 2012/12/14: ACPD: Remote sensing of ice crystal asymmetry parameter using multi-directional polarization measurements - Part 2: Application to the Research Scanning Polarimeter by B. van Diedenhoven et al.
• 2012/12/12: GMD: How realistic are air quality hindcasts driven by forcings from climate model simulations? by G. Lacressonnière et al.
• 2012/12/13: GMDD: Simulating the mid-Pliocene Warm Period with the CCSM4 model by N. A. Rosenbloom et al.
• 2012/12/13: OS: Imbalance of energy and momentum source terms of the sea wave transfer equation for fully developed seas by G. V. Caudal
• 2012/12/14: TC: A method for sea ice thickness and concentration analysis based on SAR data and a thermodynamic model by J. Karvonen et al.
• 2012/12/12: TC: The stability of grounding lines on retrograde slopes by G. H. Gudmundsson et al.
• 2012/12/14: TCD: Micrometeorological conditions and surface mass and energy fluxes on Lewis glacier, Mt Kenya, in relation to other tropical glaciers by L. Nicholson et al.
• 2012/12/13: TCD: Global glacier volumes and sea level - effects of ice below the surface of the ocean and of new local lakes on land by W. Haeberli & A. Linsbauer
• 2012/12/11: GMDD: A test of numerical instability and stiffness in the parametrizations of the ARPÉGE and ALADIN models by M. Tudor
• 2012/12/11: GMDD: Improving the representation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) in the MOZART-4 global chemical transport model by A. Mahmud & K. C. Barsanti
• 2012/12/11: GMDD: Modeling agriculture in the Community Land Model by B. Drewniak et al.
• 2012/12/10: GMDD: Present state of global wetland extent and wetland methane modelling: methodology of a model intercomparison project (WETCHIMP) by R. Wania et al.
• 2012/12/11: OS: Impact of the sea surface temperature forcing on hindcasts of Madden-Julian Oscillation events using the ECMWF model by E. de Boisséson et al.
• 2012/12/10: OSD: On the use of the Strouhal/Stokes number to explain the dynamics and water column structure on shelf seas by A. J. Souza
• 2012/12/10: TCD: The first complete inventory of the local glaciers and ice caps on Greenland by P. Rastner et al.
• 2012/12/11: TCD: Snow spectral albedo at Summit, Greenland: comparison between in situ measurements and numerical simulations using measured physical and chemical properties of the snowpack by C. M. Carmagnola et al.
• 2012/12/: JPS(via doi): (ab$) Cost-minimized combinations of wind power, solar power and electrochemical storage, powering the grid up to 99.9% of the time by Cory Budischak et al.
• 2012/12/10: AGWObserver: New research from last week 49/2012
• 2012/12/09: Nature:CC: Dolomite-rich coralline algae in reefs resist dissolution in acidified conditions by M. C. Nash et al.
• 2012/12/09: Nature:CC: Comparing the effectiveness of monetary versus moral motives in environmental campaigning by J. W. Bolderdijk et al.
• 2012/12/09: Nature:CC: Assessment of the first consensus prediction on climate change by David J. Frame & Dáithí A. Stone
  

  Note the PNAS special issue on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill:

• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on a deep-water coral community in the Gulf of Mexico by Helen K. White et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Genomic and physiological footprint of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on resident marsh fishes by Andrew Whitehead et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Natural gas and temperature structured a microbial community response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by Molly C. Redmond & David L. Valentine
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Dynamic autoinoculation and the microbial ecology of a deep water hydrocarbon irruption by David L. Valentine et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Numerical simulations of the Macondo well blowout reveal strong control of oil flow by reservoir permeability and exsolution of gas by Curtis M. Oldenburg et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Estimating oil concentration and flow rate with calibrated vessel-mounted acoustic echo sounders by Thomas C. Weber et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Acoustic measurement of the Deepwater Horizon Macondo well flow rate by Richard Camillia et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Composition and fate of gas and oil released to the water column during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by Christopher M. Reddy et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Air quality implications of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by Ann M. Middlebrook et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Federal seafood safety response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by Gina M. Ylitalo et al.
• 2012/12/11: PNAS: (ab$) Scientific basis for safely shutting in the Macondo Well after the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout by Stephen H. Hickmana et al.
  

  And other significant documents:

• 2012/12/12: TC&BP: [link to 1.6 meg pdf] Fossil Fuel Front Groups on the Front Page
• 2012/12/: Exxon: [pdf] The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040
• 2012/12/10: EPA: [links to several pdfs] Climate Change Indicators in the United States
  

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2012/12/14: BBC: Reservoirs can make local flooding worse, says study
  Researchers say that large man-made reservoirs can increase the intensity of rainfall and could affect flood defences. The scientists found that rain patterns around bodies of water in Chile were much higher than in similar areas without them. This "lake effect" could overwhelm flood defences which are often built without taking it into account.
• 2012/12/11: RetractionWatch: Elsevier editorial system hacked, reviews faked, 11 retractions follow
• 2012/12/12: SlashDot: Hacked Review System Leads To Fake Reviews and Retraction of Scientific Papers
• 2012/12/12: ERabett: Fun With Polynomials
• 2012/12/13: P3: Should Scientists Take a Political Position?
• 2012/12/11: ERabett: When you set out on your journey to Stockholm, pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge and the Republicans don't win
  

  More DIY science:

• 2012/12/14: Moyhu: Universal station locator and history plotter
• 2012/12/12: Moyhu: November TempLS Global Temp down 0.02°C
  

  What's new in models?

• 2012/12/15: SimpleC: Can we trust climate models?
  

  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

• 2012/12/14: ERabett: Sharpening the Teeth on a Whale
  

  Regarding Hansen:

• 2012/12/14: UKISS: Wake Up! A plea from Jim Hansen
  

  Regarding E.O. Wilson:

• 2012/12/14: GreenGrok: E.O. Wilson, Science Giant and Environmental Champion, Comes to Town -- and Illuminates
  

  Jerry Mahlman in memoriam:

• 2012/12/11: P3: RIP Jerry Mahlman
• 2012/12/11: CSW: Remembering Jerry Mahlman, 1940-2012
  

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2012/12/14: BBerg: California Carbon Rises to Eight-Week High After Quebec Votes
  California carbon futures rose to the highest price in almost two months after Quebec approved changes to allow links between their cap-and-trade systems. Carbon markets in Quebec and California will be connected next spring, and their governments will hold the first joint auction of carbon allowances in August, Yves-François Blanchet, Quebec's minister of sustainable development, environment, wildlife and parks, said in a statement on his agency's website.
• 2012/12/13: DerSpiegel: Tax Evasion Probe Why Deutsche Bank Will Emerge Unscathed
  German prosecutors are investigating Deutsche Bank CEO Jürgen Fitschen. But does this mean he will be forced to step down? Probably not. The bank has survived far worse episodes in the past. Fitschen's predecessor even went to trial and still kept his job. Five hundred officials with the German Federal Criminal Office (BKA), the federal police and tax investigators searched Deutsche Bank's headquarters on Wednesday morning. A short while later, the finance giant declared that its CEO Jürgen Fitschen had become the subject of an investigation. Officials are looking into possible value-added tax evasion by Fitschen and the company's chief financial officer Stefan Krause. Specifically, investigators are examining whether the company conducted illegal trade in carbon emissions certificates.
• 2012/12/12: BBC: Deutsche Bank offices raided in carbon tax fraud probe
  German prosecutors have raided offices belonging to Deutsche Bank as part of an investigation into a tax evasion scheme involving the trading of carbon permits.
• 2012/12/12: CBC: Deutsche Bank probed in carbon trading tax scam
• 2012/12/12: Guardian(UK): Deutsche Bank offices raided amid tax evasion inquiry [related to carbon trading]
• 2012/12/11: BaltimoreSun: Regional climate compact at a crossroads
  Maryland, other states aim to keep reducing power plant carbon emissions without boosting power prices
  A pioneering regional compact to fight climate change stands at a crossroads, as officials from Maryland and eight other Northeast states meet Tuesday in New York to weigh new limits on their power plants' carbon dioxide emissions. With emissions significantly reduced since the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative began in 2008 - though mainly from other factors - the states are weighing how much lower to try to push carbon-dioxide releases through the end of the decade without risking stifling their economic recovery. "We're here to set a reasonable cap,'' said Robert M. Summers, Maryland's environment secretary, on the eve of the gathering. He said he hoped the group would settle on an emissions ceiling that would lead to further reductions without what he called a "major price impact" on electricity rates in the region.
• 2012/12/11: BBC: FSA 'misgivings' over carbon credits investments
  The City regulator says it has "deep misgivings" about high-pressure sales of carbon credit investments. The average investor is spending £10,000, but the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is concerned that these people are failing to get any return. A carbon credit is a permit giving a firm the right to emit a tonne (1,000kg) of carbon dioxide (CO2), and it can be traded for money. The FSA has warned investors about 13 firms offering credits this year.

• You have to wonder when organizations try to go two different directions at once. Last week the EU was going to reduce the number of permits to raise the price. Now they're going to give permits away for free?

• 2012/12/14: Reuters: EU considers more free CO2 permits for steelmakers: sources
  The European Commission is considering whether to hand out more free pollution allowances for the steel sector next year to counter the risk the industry could be driven out of Europe, EU sources said.
• 
  

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

   

• 2012/12/11: ERabett: Climate policy does not need bureaucrats. A carbon tax would work just fine. - Richard Tol
  

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

• 2012/12/14: CDreams: EU's Landslide Vote for 'Robin Hood Tax'
  Eleven countries in Europe hope to raise billions of Euros through a tiny tax on financial speculation. This week, a major vote in the European parliament brings that plan one step closer to becoming reality.
• 2012/12/13: CDreams: Robin Hood Not News? Why Transaction Tax Absent from Obsessive "Cliff" Coverage
  

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

• 2012/12/16: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Iran and the new EIA and OPEC Reports
• 2012/12/14: ICH: The Impact of Sanctions on Iranian Society
• 2012/12/11: CCurrents: Sanctions Are Destroying Iranian Society
• 2012/12/10: GulfNews: US envoy concerned over gas link -- Says Washington was willing to help meet Islamabad's energy needs
  Karachi: The American envoy to Islamabad Monday expressed his concerns over a proposed gas pipeline project between Iran and Pakistan that aimed at reaching the energy market in South Asia.
• 2012/12/06: TheHill: New report warns of diplomatic costs to the US of Iran sanctions
• 2012/12/05: FP:SMWalt: Oil, Iran, and stability in the Gulf: Why the Gulf states want to keep Iran in a box
  

  South [& East] China Sea tension persists:

• 2012/12/15: BBC: China submits East China Sea islands claim to UN
  China has submitted to the UN a detailed explanation of its claims to a disputed area of the East China Sea. It argues that certain geological features prove its territory extends out to a group of islands near Japan. A UN commission of geological experts will examine China's submission but does not have the authority to resolve conflicting claims. Beijing and Tokyo have long laid claim to the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
• 2012/12/13: Guardian(UK): Japan protests about Chinese airspace 'intrusion' over disputed islands
  Japanese military scrambles eight F-15 fighter jets after Chinese government plane enters airspace over Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands
• 2012/12/13: al Jazeera: China aircraft 'intrudes into Japan airspace'
  Japan scrambles fighter jets to counter first ever 'intrusion of airspace', but China terms flight 'completely normal'. A Chinese state-owned aircraft has flown over islands at the centre of a dispute between Japan and China, the Japanese defence ministry says.
• 
  

  In the global competition for Rare Earths and other natural resources:

   

• 2012/12/14: AutoBG: Japan-market Nissan Leaf uses smaller amounts of rare earth metals
  

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

• 2012/12/12: Eureka: Will climate change cause water conflict? [CLICO]
• 2012/12/11: Guardian(UK): US intelligence community warns of rising climate security threat
  National Intelligence Council acknowledges climate change and related impacts on resources present emerging security risk
• 2012/12/10: CDreams: US Intel Report Predicts US Decline as Global Resource Wars Rise [Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds]
  

  What are the activists up to?

• 2012/12/13: LoE: Arctic 1, Shell 0
• 2012/12/13: ABC(Au): Protesters scale power plant cooling tower
  Two protesters have scaled a large cooling tower at the Yallourn Power Station in the Latrobe Valley. The protesters from the group Quit Coal have unfurled a 12-metre banner, calling for an end to government subsidies for brown coal power generators. The power company says energy production has not been affected.
• 
  

  Polls! We have polls!

   

• 2012/12/15: CDreams: Poll: Climate Change Skeptics Swayed by Extreme Weather, Not Scientists
• 2012/12/14: CBC: Global warming belief growing among U.S. science doubters
  Nearly 4 out of 5 Americans say temperatures are rising, global warming a serious problem
• 2012/12/14: Guardian(UK): Extreme weather more persuasive on climate change than scientists
  AP poll shows that events like superstorm Sandy are succeeding with climate sceptics where scientists have been failing
• 2012/12/14: ICN: Poll: Science Doubters Say World Is Warming
• 2012/12/14: BBerg: Tougher Fracking Regulations Backed by 66%, Poll Shows
  

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2012/12/15: JFleck: Augmentation - the central question
• 2012/12/13: LA Times: Colorado River water supply to fall short of demand, study says
  The federal report predicts a drier future for the seven states that rely on the Colorado for water. A range of solutions, some impractical, are proposed.
• 2012/12/13: WaPo:B: Will the West ever solve its water woes?
  Congress isn't planning to take action on climate change any time soon. But if the planet keeps warming, a number of states won't be able to ignore the problem quite so easily. One good place to see this is in the Colorado River basin. The Colorado River provides fresh water to nearly 40 million people in seven states out west: Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. A sizable chunk of U.S. agriculture relies on that water -- about 15 percent of the nation's crops and 13 percent of its livestock. (Indeed, the vast majority of the river's water is used for irrigation and agriculture.) But there's a problem: The Colorado River may soon no longer have enough water to satisfy the region's needs.
• 2012/12/12: ABC(Au): Samoa water shortage continues
  Authorities in Samoa are again calling on residents to conserve water as a prolonged dry spell continues.
• 2012/12/13: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: Basin Study -- it's conservation for now
• 2012/12/12: BPA: A New Report on Iowa's Water Quality
• 2012/12/11: JFleck: Why the Basin Study is not about a pipeline to the Missouri
  

  And on the groundwater front:

• 2012/12/13: Resilience: Poisoning the well: How the Feds let industry pollute the nation's underground water supply
• 2012/12/11: ICN: EPA Lets Energy Firms Pollute America's Underground Water Supply
• 2012/12/11: ProPublica: Poisoning the Well: How the Feds Let Industry Pollute the Nation's Underground Water Supply
• 2012/12/11: CDreams: Poisoning the Well: How the Feds Let Industry Pollute the Nation's Underground Water Supply
  Federal officials have given energy and mining companies permission to pollute aquifers in more than 1,500 places across the country, releasing toxic material into underground reservoirs that help supply more than half of the nation's drinking water. In many cases, the Environmental Protection Agency has granted these so-called aquifer exemptions in Western states now stricken by drought and increasingly desperate for water. EPA records show that portions of at least 100 drinking water aquifers have been written off because exemptions have allowed them to be used as dumping grounds.
• 
  

  Regarding education:

   

• 2012/12/11: ERabett: To the Stars (Cause There is a Problem Down Here)
  

  Who's making predictions this week?

• 2012/12/12: Eureka: Climate modelers see possible warmer, wetter Northeast winters by 2070
  A new high-resolution climate study suggests temperatures are going to be significantly warmer in the next 30 years, especially in winter
• 2012/12/11: CLB: Predictions of the past & the future
  

  And on the American political front:

• 2012/12/14: AlterNet: America's Most Dangerous Enemy
  This danger lurks within our borders -- a powerful network of organizations, which, while once vital to our country, now serves to weaken and ultimately ruin America.
• 2012/12/12: S&R: When (and why) should an energy subsidy end?
• 2012/12/12: TP:JR: Wind Takes Lead In Reducing Red Ink; Will Big Oil & Other Fossil Fuels Abandon Their Special Tax Breaks?
• 2012/12/03: TCBH: Security Obsession Drives 100 Scientists from NASA: Top Security Clearance Needed to Help Steer the Curiosity Rover?
• 2012/12/12: CSW: Can "Global Warming's Six Americas" become a melting pot for meaningful action?
• 2012/12/13: EconView: Fed Watch: Gas Prices Falling - Tim Duy
• 2012/12/14: TP:JR: Ex-Im Bank: New Dirty, Controversial Coal Plant? Where Do We Sign Up?
• 2012/12/12: TP:JR: New Report Raises Questions: Should American Taxpayers Be Giving Their Minerals Away To Mining Companies?
• 2012/12/12: ICN: In Obama's Backyard, a Climate Change Battle in Virginia Next Year
  With Virginia's climate skeptic attorney general seeking the governor's seat and fossil fuel money pouring in, familiar battle lines are being drawn.
• 2012/12/11: TP:JR: Interactive Graphic: Big Polluters' Big Ad Spending In The 2012 Elections
• 2012/12/11: TP:JR: In Florida, An Actual Bipartisan Discussion On How To Deal With Climate Change
• 2012/12/07: USDA: SNAP Monthly Data
• 2012/12/09: ZeroHedge: Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months
• 2012/12/12: UCSUSA:B: Compounding The Problem
• 2012/12/14: TP:JR: Small Tweaks To The Tax Code Can Mean Big Improvements In Renewable Energy Deployment
• 2012/12/14: TP:JR: Ex-Im Bank: New Dirty, Controversial Coal Plant? Where Do We Sign Up?
• 2012/12/11: P3: Reaching Out to Conservatives
• 2012/12/09: TheCanadian: Cracks in Scientific Study Downplaying Risks of Fracking - Lead Scientist on Board of Energy Company
• 2012/12/10: TexasTrib: Texas Regulators Prepare Major Drilling Rule Changes
• 2012/12/10: P3: Texas's Flawless Regulatory Regime Fixed
• 2012/12/11: Guardian(UK): US intelligence community warns of rising climate security threat
• 2012/12/10: CDreams: US Intel Report Predicts US Decline as Global Resource Wars Rise [Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds]
• 2012/12/10: BBerg: U.S. Intelligence Agencies See a Different World in 2030
• 2012/12/11: TP:JR: The Salt Lake Tribune Editorializes 'A Killing Climate: Global Warming Unchecked'
  

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics. See also:

• 2012/12/13: CBS: Oil may be seeping from Deepwater Horizon site
• 2012/12/12: DeSmogBlog: Internal BP Emails Could Expose Extent Of Corporate Cover-Up Of Gulf Oil Disaster
  

  Post-Sandy commentary, recovery and news:

• 2012/12/14: EconIntersect: What Made Sandy So Destructive?
• 2012/12/13: al Jazeera: After superstorm Sandy, climate change debate stalls in Doha
  The devastating impact of climate change on the world economy has risen to 1.6 per cent of global GDP.
• 2012/12/12: Guardian(UK): 12.12.12 concert for Sandy relief - live
• 2012/12/05: BAR: Sandy, the Storm from Hell -- Unless You're a Banker
• 2012/12/12: CSM: Rock legends hit the right notes in Sandy benefit concert
• 2012/12/13: TP:JR: GOP Aide Asks: 'Why Don't We Wait A Few Months' To Deliver Sandy Disaster Relief?
• 2012/12/11: CDreams: Why Race Matters After Sandy
• 2012/12/11: NOAANews: Study shows polar-orbiting satellite data was key to pinpointing Sandy's track and time of landfall
• 2012/12/10: DD: Protecting New Jersey from future storms will cost billions
• 2012/12/10: Wunderground: Hurricane Sandy was not an extreme Black Swan hurricane
• 2012/12/09: CDreams: At 'Urban Uprising' Conference, Activists Reimagine the City Post-Sandy
  

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

• 2012/12/12: FuelFix: TransCanada will fight order to halt Keystone XL work
• 2012/12/11: G&M: Protests in Texas just a taste of pipeline battles to come
• 2012/12/12: OilChange: Texas Judge Stops KXL
• 2012/12/13: LA Times: Texas judge lifts order that halted work on Keystone XL pipeline
• 2012/12/13: TP:JR: Will Keystone XL Spoil Your Holidays?
• 2012/12/14: CDreams: Texas Landowner to Tar Sands Oil Company: 'The Fight Is On' -- Judge Rules Keystone XL Construction Can Proceed -- For Now
• 2012/12/11: CDreams: In Blow to Tar Sands Pipeline, Texas Landowner Wins Restraining Order
  Judge finds landowner would suffer "immediate and irreparable injury" from Keystone XL
• 2012/12/11: DeSmogBlog: Keystone XL Conflicts of Interest Piling Up
• 2012/12/10: ICN: Nebraska Firm Reviewing Keystone XL [HDR Engineering, Inc.] Has Ties to Pipeline Builder
  

  With the deficit hawks panicking about the fiscal cliff, there has been talk of a carbon tax solution:

• 2012/12/13: Thehill:e2W: Conservative groups press lawmakers to reject proposals for a carbon tax
• 2012/12/10: TheHill:e2W: House Energy Chairman Upton: Exxon's support for carbon tax isn't 'very serious'
  House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) suggested Monday that Exxon Mobil Corp. isn't pushing lawmakers especially hard for a carbon tax despite the company's public embrace of the idea.
• 2012/12/11: PSinclair: Rep. Upton (R-Koch Bros.): No Carbon Tax
  

  The GOP War on Women continues. See also:

• 2012/12/12: Guardian(UK): Michigan enters women's health fray with move to limit abortion access
  Protesters turn out alongside right-to-work demonstrators against bill activists say ignores message sent by election result
• 2012/12/11: CDreams: And Our Vote For the Vilest And/Or Most Clueless Ad Placement Ever Goes to...
• 2012/12/12: CDreams: Memo to Michigan: Did You Not Hear the Voters on Women's Health?
• 2012/12/12: CDreams: GOP Leadership and Violence Against Native Women
• 2012/12/14: Wonkette: Fired Wingnut Komen Lady Karen Handel Challenges Planned Parenthood To Bitch-Slap Contest
• 2012/12/13: CDreams: Calls for Veto as "Anti-Women Super Bill" Heads to Michigan Governor's Desk -- Lame duck passage of extreme anti-choice legislation faces backlash
  

  The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:

• 2012/12/14: ICN: Protests Ahead of Wash. Coal Terminal Hearing
• 2012/12/07: Yahoo:AP: Coal deal could boost exports; Mont layoffs stand
  Montana coal mine dispute settled in deal that could boost Asian exports; layoffs planned A pair of coal companies have struck a deal on a disputed Montana mine that both sides said could boost Asian exports through the West Coast, but won't prevent up to 75 layoffs in the short term. The deal calls for Australian-based Ambre Energy to gain full control of the Decker mine near the Wyoming border for $57 million. The company wants to ramp up production and ship fuel overseas through a pair of Columbia River ports.
• 2012/12/04: EcoWatch: Waterkeepers Worldwide Stand Strong Against Global Impacts of Coal Trafficking
  As you read this, the Army Corps of Engineers is holding a series of public hearings on a proposal to build the largest coal-export terminal in North America. A consortium of investors, myopically focused on profit, want to build the Gateway Pacific Terminal, a carbon-trafficking behemoth that is among the most ominous new climate-killing proposals to hit the U.S. in the last century.
• 
  

  As legally required, the EPA Announced the new Clean Air Standard on Friday:

   

• 2012/12/14: EPA: EPA Announces Next Round of Clean Air Standards to Reduce Harmful Soot Pollution
• 2012/12/15: CSM: EPA squelches soot. First step in a deluge of regulations?
  The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced new standards Friday that aim to reduce the amount of soot released into the air by 20 percent. The annual health standard will be lowered from 15 micrograms of fine-particle pollution per cubic meter down to 12.
• 2012/12/14: UCSUSA:B: EPA, Following Clean Air Act, Sets Soot Pollution Standards Based on Science
• 2012/12/14: BBerg: EPA Said to Tighten Soot Rules That Industry Fought
• 2012/12/14: TP:JR: Carol Browner On The EPA's Stricter Protections Against Soot Pollution
• 2012/12/13: TheHill:e2W: Industry, green groups brace for soot rule
  Green and industry groups have been busy making last-second appeals to the White House regarding soot standards the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to finalize Friday. The White House Office of Management and Budget held court for several groups on the issue Wednesday and Thursday, ranging from the American Petroleum Institute to the American Lung Association. Those groups are two examples of warring sides on the rule, which would affect fine particulate matter of less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. EPA has a court-mandated Friday deadline for sealing the rule.
• 
  

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

   

• 2012/12/11: Guardian(UK): Van Jones on Obama: Climate will be the issue he is judged on
  The green-jobs guru believes that Obama has an opportunity to tackle global warming. Will the president take it?
• 
  

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

   

• 2012/12/12: ScienceInsider: Jane Lubchenco to Leave NOAA Helm
• 2012/12/12: NOAANews: National Weather Service tests new, simpler winter hazard communications -- Public invited to comment during test period
• 2012/12/13: SciAm:Obs: New U.S. Commission Would Try to Improve Weather Forecasting
• 2012/12/11: Reuters: U.S. delays final fracking rules for federal lands
  The U.S. government has delayed finalizing rules that expand its oversight of natural gas drilling on public lands because officials must evaluate a torrent of public comment on the proposals, the Obama administration said on Tuesday.
• 2012/12/12: CDreams: California Public Land Sold [by BLM] to Frackers Despite Public Outcry
  800,000 acres and counting going to fossil fuel industry on Obama's watch
• 2012/12/11: CDreams: Poisoning the Well: How the Feds Let Industry Pollute the Nation's Underground Water Supply
• 2012/12/10: EPA: Climate Change Indicators in the United States
• 2012/12/10: CDreams: Hillary Clinton's Environmental Failures Could Become Obama's [McKibben]
• 2012/12/10: ICN: Who Will Lead for Obama on Carbon and Clean Energy Policy?
  

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2012/12/14: CDreams: Monsanto Gets Its Way in Ag Bill
• 2012/12/14: DeSmogBlog: Senator Boxer Creates First U.S. Climate Change Caucus
• 2012/12/14: TP:JR: Over 10,000 Americans Tell Congress To Stop Pushing Us Over The Climate Cliff
• 2012/12/12: ScienceInsider: Agency Tells Congress That NIF Is Not Working
• 2012/12/11: TheHill:e2W: Sen. Boxer announces plans to form 'climate change caucus'
• 2012/12/11: DeSmogBlog: [ANGA: American Natural Gas Alliance] Lobbyist Spins Through Revolving Door To Work For Fred Upton
• 2012/12/12: GreenGrok: John Sununu: We don't need no stinkin' energy policy
• 2012/12/11: RawStory: Soledad grills Jeff Sessions: 'You hurt people who need food' with food stamp cuts
• 2012/12/11: TP:JR: Secret Farm Bill Threatens An 'Environmental Cliff'
  

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2012/12/12: Eureka: Economists calculate true value of 'who' you know, rather than 'what' in US politics
• 2012/12/12: EconView: For Lobbyists, It's 'Who You Know' -- What's the value of a lobbyist?
  

  While in the UK:

• 2012/12/15: BBC: Wind farm impact on Jurassic Coast to be examined, firm pledges
• 2012/12/14: CNN: Opinion: Fracking is a threat to health and well-being
  UK campaigners: Shale gas exploration have greater impact in UK than in U.S. - Frack Off: Unconventional gas unlocking could cause huge global temperature rise - Group: Health and well-being of people in UK should not be sacrificed for profit of a few
• 2012/12/14: LoE: Greenpeace responds to end of UK fracking moratorium
• 2012/12/13: CDreams: UK Gives Fracking Industry Green Light Despite Tremors, Toxins
  Credentials of self proclaimed 'greenest government ever' in tatters, say environmental groups
• 2012/12/13: Guardian(UK): Fracking: is the UK right to go ahead?
• 2012/12/13: Guardian(UK): This fracking fantasy is the delusion of fossil fuel addiction
• 2012/12/13: Guardian(UK): Shale gas: a burning carbon issue
  Fracking may have been given a clean bill of health in the UK, but taking hydrocarbons from the ground will increase emissions
• 2012/12/13: TP:JR: Big Questions About UK Shale Gas
• 2012/12/12: BBC: New nuclear plant, Hinkley Point C, design unveiled
  The design for the first UK nuclear power stations to be built for 25 years will be granted approval later. After a five year process, regulators have said the European Pressurised Reactor, designed by two French firms, is safe and environmentally sound. But there are still a number of hurdles to be cleared before energy supplier EDF and the nuclear engineering firm Areva can begin construction.
• 2012/12/12: BBC: Fracking: Shale gas decision by government awaited
  Ministers are expected to allow a firm to resume a controversial method known as fracking to exploit what it says are huge shale gas reserves off Lancashire. Cuadrilla had to stop test-drilling in 2011 after fracking caused two minor earthquakes near Blackpool. The decision due later will be watched closely by the industry and opponents
• 2012/12/11: BBC: Tiree wind farm project 'on hold' for 12 months
  Plans for an offshore wind farm near Tiree have been delayed by ScottishPower Renewables. The company said the Argyll Array scheme had been put on hold for 12 months.
• 2012/12/11: Guardian(UK): Tough questions for Cameron as his 'greenest government' vow crumbles
• 2012/12/10: Guardian(UK): [Letters] My options in Tethys Petroleum are not 'worth at least $400,000' [from UK Conservative MP, Peter Lilley]
• 2012/12/10: LoE: The frack-heads are dangerously deluded
  

  And in Europe:

• 2012/12/12: WaPo: Polish government advisor: keep using coal despite EU plan to switch to clean energy
• 2012/12/11: EurActiv: EU dismisses Polish warnings over carbon market fix
  The European Commission has moved swiftly to deny a Polish data analysis contending that plans to suspend - or 'backload' - 900 million carbon allowances from auction on the Emissions Trading System (ETS) will blow a hole in the revenues of new EU member states.
• 
  

  Meanwhile in Australia:

   

• 2012/12/15: ABC(Au): Black Saturday volunteers awarded emergency medal
  St John Ambulance volunteers have been recognised for their service after the Black Saturday bushfires at a ceremony in Melbourne. Seventy-two volunteers received the National Emergency Medal for their work in fire-affected communities.
• 2012/12/15: ABC(Au): Aboriginal people reject Native Title over coal seam gas
  Members of the Githabul people say the coal seam gas issue is forcing them to reject their Native Title claim. An application by the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council for gas prospecting in the Tweed and Byron Shires, includes areas covered by the Githabul Native Title claim of 2007. The claim is more than 6000 square kilometres in size.
• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Elders oppose CSG plans
  Aboriginal elders are meeting in northern New South Wales today to distance themselves from a state land council application for petroleum exploration rights.
• 2012/12/13: UKISS: Climate Institute Xmas 2012 by John Byatt
• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Nation's first carbon capture plant set to open
  Australia's first carbon capture plant will be launched in central Queensland tomorrow. The $200 million Callide OxyFuel Project, near Biloela, is a joint venture between the Japanese and Australian governments as well as several industry groups.
• 2012/12/16: ABC(Au): Flinders Island's windy future
  Flinders Island in Bass Strait plans to produce all its power from renewable energy sources. The plan to put up three or four wind turbines and a mini hydro storage system would cost up to $25 million. A privately-run turbine is already producing 25 per cent of the island's energy. Flinders Island Council general manager Raoul Harper said residents wanted to make that 100 per cent.
• 2012/12/11: ABC(Au): CSIRO plugs into energy vision
  Newcastle's CSIRO Energy Centre is bringing together for the first time stakeholders from across the electricity sector to develop a new vision for the nation's power supplies. The Future Grid Forum includes generators, distributors, consumer groups and regulators, and will help guide an expected $240 billion investment in the sector over the next 20 years. Manager of Carbon Futures at CSIRO Newcastle, Paul Graham, says there will also be significant input from the community about what changes they would like to see.
• 2012/12/11: SMH: Sceptics cool on climate studies
  The most prominent political climate sceptics see no reason to change their minds, despite the welter of studies over the past fortnight showing forecasts of global warming were correct or underestimates. Many of the climate sceptics, influential in elevating Tony Abbott to Coalition leader, say they see nothing to convince them that human activity is causing the climate to change.
• 2012/12/11: WtD: At war with reality: key figures in Liberal Party remain unswayed by evidence
• 2012/12/10: TheConversation: COAG's energy market reforms must protect the poor
• 2012/12/10: TheConversation: Tarkine a question of values: mines versus ancient rainforest
• 2012/12/10: ABC(Au): Govt says Climate Fund claims are 'rubbish', Oppn says it's a PC cause
  [T]he Federal Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, says it's 'nonsense' to suggest that taxpayers will have to foot a $3 billion annual bill to cover the costs of extreme weather events caused by climate change in developing nations. The Minister says the funding agreement is part of longer term negotiation on a new global pact to reduce carbon emissions and that the details are yet to be finalised. But the Coalition Leader, Tony Abbott, has already dismissed the fund as a 'politically correct cause', and his climate change spokesman Greg Hunt says the Opposition does not support the agreement to have the fund.
• 2012/12/10: ABC(Au): Big increase in gas, electricity disconnections
  More Victorians are having their power and gas cut off for failing to pay their bills on time.
• 
  

  While parliament is in recess, the Slipper - Ashby court ruling and later fallout have been entertaining, if useless:

   

• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Gillard demands Brough's head as Abbott rejects Slipper 'witch-hunt'
  The Prime Minister is demanding Tony Abbott dump former Howard government minister Mal Brough as a political candidate, amid the fallout from a failed sexual harassment case against Peter Slipper. A Federal Court judge found the case against the former parliamentary speaker was politically motivated, and designed to further the interests of the Liberal National Party and Mr Brough, who has been preselected as the Coalition's candidate in Mr Slipper's electorate of Fisher.
• 2012/12/13: ABC(Au): Coalition backs Brough amid Slipper fallout
  Senior Coalition figures are standing by former Howard government minister Mal Brough despite calls for him to be disendorsed because of links to a failed sexual harassment case against Peter Slipper. The Federal Court yesterday dismissed the case brought against the former parliamentary speaker by one of his staff, James Ashby, declaring it was an abuse of process designed to cause "significant public, reputational and political damage". Justice Steven Rares believed the case was designed to further the political interests of the Liberal National Party (LNP) and Mr Brough, who has been preselected as the Coalition's candidate in Mr Slipper's Sunshine Coast electorate of Fisher.
• 2012/12/12: BBC: Australian court rejects sex case against former Speaker
  An Australian court has rejected a sexual harassment case filed against former Speaker of Parliament Peter Slipper, who had been forced to resign. The case filed by his colleague, James Ashby, was a "political attack", the court ruled, ordering Mr Ashby to pay Mr Slipper's fees. Mr Ashby said he was disappointed with the decision and would lodge an appeal.
• 2012/12/12: ABC(Au): Labor targets Coalition over links to Slipper case
  Labor is demanding senior Coalition figures detail what involvement they had in a failed sexual harassment case against former parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper. Justice Steven Rares today ruled the case brought against Mr Slipper by one of his staff members was an "abuse of process", declaring its predominant purpose was to cause "significant public, reputational and political damage".
• 2012/12/12: ABC(Au): Slipper sexual harassment case thrown out
  Former House of Representatives speaker Peter Slipper says he feels vindicated by the Federal Court's decision to dismiss a sexual harassment case against him. Federal Court Justice Steven Rares ruled that the case brought against Mr Slipper by one of his staff members was an "abuse of process", declaring that its predominant purpose was to cause "significant public, reputational and political damage". "To allow these proceedings to remain in the court would bring the administration of justice into disrepute among right-thinking people and would be manifestly unfair to Mr Slipper," he said in his judgement.
• 
  

  After years of wrangling the Murray Darling Basin plan is in place. Now the real fight begins:

   

• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Thousands to get water price cut
  Adelaide homes using reticulated recycled water will have their charges reduced. There has been a review of prices by SA Water and the South Australian Government.
• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Cotter Dam reaches high heights
  It is over budget and overtime, but this weekend Canberra's Cotter Dam will reach its full height, marking the final day for half the workers. Towering 80 metres tall and a staggering 230 metres wide, Canberra's great wall will have its final layer of concrete poured on Saturday.
• 2012/12/12: ABC(Au): Scientists say Basin Plan could fail without a national monitoring system
  Experts say the Murray-Darling Basin Plan must include a national, shared data system which monitors and evaluates the success of returning water to the environment. That's the consensus of more than 100 scientists and water managers who've met to discuss the controversial Basin Plan in Canberra.
• 2012/12/10: ABC(Au): River Murray inflows remain steady
  

  While in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2012/12/13: CCurrents: Koodankulam: The Right To Live, Feel, Think And Be Free
• 2012/12/11: JQuiggin: India also cold on coal
  

  And in China:

• 2012/12/13: al Jazeera: Energy-hungry China seeks shale gas supremacy
  With the US achieving greater energy independence through 'fracking', Beijing is eyeing its own gas reserves to exploit.
• 2012/12/12: BBerg: China Allocates $2 Billion of Solar Subsidies, Xinhua Says
  China allocated a total of 13 billion yuan ($2 billion) this year from central government funds for domestic solar installations, Xinhua News Agency reported. The funds will be spent on solar power demonstration projects with 5.2 gigawatts of capacity...
• 
  

  While in Japan:

   

• 2012/12/16: JapanToday: Exit polls: LDP wins clear majority with 275-300 seats
• 2012/12/16: JEB: Japanese elections: Govt wins
• 2012/12/15: Asia Times: Japan builds a Galapagos of power
  Instead of pursuing smart cities, smart grids and renewable energy, political and policymaking chaos in Japan is allowing the return of a pro-nuclear power camp committed to leading the country down the same road as was followed before the Fukushima meltdown. Based on crass calculations and recession scaremongering, the revival flies in the face of international trends and Japan's history of innovation.
• 2012/12/14: al Jazeera: Japan's LDP set to return to power
  Polls suggest Liberal Democratic Party of ex-prime minister Shinzo Abe would take the lead in Sunday's elections.
• 
  

  And elsewhere in Asia:

   

• 2012/12/11: Reuters: Is South Korea ready for "Madam President"?
• 2012/12/14: ChinaPost: Last South Korean polls prior to election put Park over the Moon
• 2012/12/13: Reuters: South Korea opposition candidate closes poll gap, pledges jobs
  

  And South America:

• 2012/12/13: CCurrents: The Political Prisoners Of Rafael Correa
  

  In Canada, neocon PM Harper pushes petroleum while ignoring climate change:

• 2012/12/14: PostMedia: It's official: Harper government withdraws from Kyoto climate agreement
  Canada will officially become the first country to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol climate change agreement Saturday, following years of criticism from the Harper government and lobbying from major industrial polluters. The withdrawal, first announced by Environment Minister Peter Kent in 2011, coincides with new public opinion research by the Environics Institute that shows more than half of Canadians support British Columbia's carbon tax and believe governments should show more leadership with regulations and standards to get consumers and industry to change their habits and slash heat-trapping pollution.
• 2012/12/14: NatPo: Senate passes Harper government's omnibus budget bill C-45
• 2012/12/14: TheCanadian: How the Environment is Becoming the Top Issue for Canadians
• 2012/12/11: TheCanadian: In Praise of Science and Reason
• 2012/12/11: Tyee: If China Can Have State-Owned Energy Firms, Why Can't We? Question looms after Harper's sell-out of Canadian interests with CNOOC, Petronas takeovers
• 2012/12/10: TStar: Harper government crafts Canada's energy policy in Ottawa's back rooms
• 2012/12/11: al Jazeera: Canada's 'war on science'
  Environmental groups say recent measures show that Harper's government is stepping up its attack on climate scientists. Canadian campaigners are calling it a "war on science" - a slow and systematic unravelling of environmental and climate research budgets under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. Hundreds of researchers have lost their jobs, with those remaining reportedly forbidden from talking to the media without a government minder.
• 2012/12/10: DeSmogBlog: Conservative Carbon Tax Attack on Mulcair Based on an Expert "Tweet"
  

  A fair bit of chatter about Harper's CNOOC - Nexen approval:

• 2012/12/11: TStar: Nexen deal proves Harper is China's plaything
• 2012/12/10: NatPo: Andrew Coyne: Stephen Harper compromises on Nexen and everyone gets half a baby
• 2012/12/11: TheCanadian: NDP, Civil Groups Slam Harper Government's Approval of CNOOC Nexen Buyout
• 2012/12/10: CBC: Nexen, Progress Energy shares rally on takeover approvals
• 2012/12/09: CTV: Paradis says it's now up to China to explain deal to Canadians
• 2012/12/09: TMoS: Harper's Industry Minister Says China Can Explain What We're Supposedly Getting Out of Nexen Deal
• 2012/12/09: TMoS: Harper's Athabascan Desperation or How Stephen Harper Became Beijing's Bum Boy
• 2012/12/10: MSimon: Stephen Harper and the Great Betrayal
  

  Well we have the CNOOC-Nexen and Petronas-Progress deals. Any others?

• 2012/12/15: TheCanadian: Despite PM's Assurances, Floodgates Open to Chinese Govt as Encana, PetroChina Partner
• 2012/12/14: CNN: PetroChina in $2.2B Canada gas deal
  Chinese oil group PetroChina is buying a stake in a big Canadian shale gasfield - Highlights Chinese energy companies' growing interest in Canadian resources
• 2012/12/13: BBC: PetroChina agrees $2.2bn Encana natural gas deal
• 2012/12/13: CBC: Encana partners with PetroChina for $2B natural gas project
• 2012/12/13: BBerg: PetroChina Pays C$2.18 Billion to Form Encana Venture
• 2012/12/11: Reuters: India state oil firms press ahead with Canada oil sands bid
  India's state oil companies intend to press ahead with plans to buy stakes in Canada's oil sands and believe they will not run afoul of tougher Canadian rules on foreign ownership of the sector. A consortium of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India Ltd and refiner Indian Oil Corp is among three bidders shortlisted to buy stakes in Canadian oil sands owned by ConocoPhillips. The assets could be worth up to $5 billion.
• 
  

  The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

   

• 2012/12/12: CBC: West Coast oil tanker spill clean-up could cost $9.6B
  UBC study looks at impacts of major spill from tankers servicing Northern Gateway Pipeline A new study says the cost of cleaning up a major oil spill on the North Coast of B.C. could hit $9.6 billion, wiping out any economic benefits from the Northern Gateway Pipeline project for the region.
• 2012/12/12: NI: Ottawa's habitual condescension
• 2012/12/12: ICN: Poll: 60% of BC Residents Oppose Northern Gateway Pipeline Project
• 2012/12/12: ICN: Northern Gateway: Study Says Single Spill Could Wipe Out Economic Gains
• 2012/12/12: BBerg: Enbridge Pipeline Faces Scallop-Farmers Fight
  A line of yellow buoys marking the boundaries of a scallop farm outside Prince Rupert, British Columbia presents the biggest challenge Enbridge Inc. (ENB) may face in its bid to connect Canada's oil sands to Asia. The aboriginal communities on British Columbia's northern coast, already a port for ships to load grain and coal sent by rail from Canada's interior, are expanding shellfish farming and ecotourism, said Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations. The native group seeks to develop an economy based on renewable resources and has attracted investment from former Prime Minister Paul Martin and Chinese companies. Coastal First Nations plans to fight any attempt by Enbridge to bring oil tankers to the area, said Sterritt.
• 2012/12/11: DeSmogBlog: Northern Gateway Pipeline Hearing Exposes Gaps in Enbridge Evidence
• 2012/12/10: PostMedia: Northern Gateway pipeline foes shift focus to tankers
  Impact of planned marine oil terminal key issue as hearings resume in Prince Rupert The effects of a tanker port and increased tanker traffic off the West Coast will be front and centre at hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline this week, as proponents and critics convene for another round of hearings. The panel reviewing the plan to build 1,100-kilometre twin pipelines will arrive in Prince Rupert, where participants will be questioning witnesses under oath about the environmental and socio-economic effects of the marine terminal and the increased shipping it will bring to the B.C. coast.
• 2012/12/09: CPW: Enbridge cross-examination focuses on campaigning, lobbying; ignores evidence
  

  And the Kinder Morgan expansion:

• 2012/12/09: TheCanadian: Mike Smyth: Kinder Morgan Facing Increasingly Uphill Battle
• 2012/12/10: TheCanadian: Public Will Soon Turn on Kinder Morgan...Will the NDP?
  

  The irony in the current East-West pipeline campaign is that such a pipeline was a major part ofPierre Trudeau'smuch malignedNational Energy Programfrom the early 1980s. Now the rabid right and the separatist Albertans are embracing it:

• 2012/12/14: BBerg: Alberta-Quebec Oil Pipeline Reversal Study Done by June
  Alberta and Quebec's study on the effects of Enbridge (ENB) Inc.'s plan to boost the flow of oil from Western to Eastern Canada should conclude by about June, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois said.
• 2012/12/12: CBC: East-West oil pipeline in national interest, Joe Oliver says
  

  Have you noticed the dispute resolution mechanisms built into these treaties are fundamentally anti-democratic?

• 2012/12/14: WCEL: First Nations lead the charge against Canada-China Trade deal
• 2012/12/13: DeSmogBlog: Van Harten: Canada "Recklessly" Entering Trans-Pacific Partnership, FIPA
• 2012/12/13: DeSmogBlog: China Investment Corporation Eyes BC Forests, Spells FIPA Danger
• 2012/12/12: Tyee: More Leaked Documents Rip Lid off CETA Giveaways -- Exposed European Union demands show Canadians' local authority, labour and enviro protections are at risk
• 2012/12/11: Tyee: TPP: Another Flawed, Hush Hush Trade Deal -- Secrecy the standard as Canada enters Pacific treaty talks
• 2012/12/09: DeSmogBlog: Are We Trading Away Our Rights and Environment? [Suzuki]
• 2012/12/09: WesternStar: Are we trading away our rights and environment?
  [...]
  Many of the problems arise because of an investor-state arbitration mechanism, which is included in NAFTA, as well as the proposed Canada-China FIPA, Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership. It allows foreign investors to bring claims before outside arbitrators if they believe their economic interests are being harmed by a nation's actions or policies. So economics trump national interests.
• 
  

  The Liberal party leadership race is on:

   

• 2012/12/11: PostMedia: Quiet, competent Murray brings message of sustainability
  Joyce Murray may lack the national profile enjoyed by other Liberal MPs hoping to lead their party, but her policy platform is a surefire attention grabber. The MP for Vancouver Quadra would legalize and tax pot, slap a price on carbon, kill the Northern Gateway project, ban oil tankers on B.C.'s north coast, ensure 40 per cent of federal appointees are women, ditch Canada's first-past-the-post voting system, and address vote splitting through a voluntary system of partisan co-operation at the riding level to allow joint candidates to compete against vulnerable Conservatives. As the 58-year-old South Africa-born wife and mother of three adult children points out, she's the only one of as many as 11 candidates seeking to replace Bob Rae to have any governing experience.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/12/14: TStar: Canadian Food Inspection Agency tangles with P.E.I. fish scientist
  There's something fishy going on in Prince Edward Island. A professor at Atlantic Veterinary College says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is trying to discredit his work after tests he conducted showed a virus in British Columbia's valuable wild salmon population. Dr. Frederick Kibenge, who found the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus in October 2011, is recognized by the World Organisation for Animal Health -- known as the OIE -- as an expert on the virus. Despite Kibenge's results, and a Department of Fisheries and Oceans lab in B.C. that also found ISA, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has maintained that West Coast salmon is free of the virus, which has never been found in the province before. If the virus is confirmed, it could have a devastating impact on the wild salmon industry in the province.
• 
  

  In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?

   

• 2012/12/13: TheCanadian: [BC] NDP Op-ed: Party Committed to Review of Fracking, Tougher Regulations
• 2012/12/14: CBC: Chinese miners allowed to come to B.C., judge rules -- Federal judge rules mining company and workers followed all the rules
• 2012/12/14: CBC: Prince Rupert coal terminal to be sold by federal government -- Move reverses Harper's 2006 decision to keep Ridley Terminals
• 2012/12/13: Tyee: 'I Want to Do Significant Things': Adrian Dix -- NDP leader talks with The Tyee about ads, agendas, working with BC Liberals, and more
• 2012/12/13: TheCanadian: New Suzuki Foundation Report Shows Staggering Longterm Industrial Impacts on Peace Region
• 2012/12/12: CBC: B.C. mine to hire only Chinese temporary workers for years
  

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2012/12/10: DeSmogBlog: Documents Reveal Alberta Colludes with Industry in Pipeline Safety Review
• 2012/12/13: TP:JR: Documents Reveal Alberta Colludes With Industry In Tar Sands Pipeline Safety Review
• 2012/12/12: PI:B: Relying on end pit lakes for tailings "reclamation" is reckless
• 2012/12/10: CPW: Forest Ethics: Canada's Tar Sands 71% Foreign-owned
  

  And in Saskatchewan:

• 2012/12/11: WpgFP: [Sask Premier, Brad] Wall backs new tarsands foreign investment rules; wants potash, uranium included
• 2012/12/10: CBC: Food security institute launched
  

  While in la Belle Province:

• 2012/12/11: CBC: Bold thieves empty corn silos at Quebec farm - 465 tonnes of corn missing
  

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2012/12/06: ForestEthics: GreenPeace Leaves Boreal Agreement: Collaboration Still Promising, but Time is Growing Short
  

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

• 2012/12/15: Resilience: Austerity - at whose cost? by Immanuel Wallerstein
  [...]
  The next twenty to forty years will see an enormous political battle, not about the survival of capitalism (which has exhausted its possibilities as a system) but about what kind of system we shall collectively "choose" to replace it - an authoritarian model that imposes continued (and expanded) polarization or one that is relatively democratic and relatively egalitarian.
• 2012/12/15: CCurrents: The Sharing Economy: Our Sustainable Future
• 2012/12/14: Resilience: Recognising Reality
• 2012/12/14: Resilience: Conflict and Change in the Era of Economic Decline: Part 3 - Scenarios for simplification: the options for managerial elites by Richard Heinberg
• 2012/12/14: Resilience: From North Dakota to Scotland: Exploring the public bank option
• 2012/12/11: CassandrasLegacy: Climate Science: the same destiny of "The Limits to Growth"?
  

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

• 2012/12/10: Guardian(UK): China's economy to outgrow America's by 2030 as world faces 'tectonic shift'
  National Intelligence Council also sees water and food shortages and suggests world is at a 'critical juncture in human history'
• 2012/12/10: Grist: Evangelical leader says we need family planning to help fight climate change
  

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2012/12/10: Resilience: Extirpation Nation: How much of the US will be habitable in 50 years?
  

  How do the media measure up?

• 2012/12/13: UKISS: Lapkin's Shame
• 2012/12/12: TC&BP: [link to 1.6 meg pdf] Fossil Fuel Front Groups on the Front Page
• 2012/12/12: DeSmogBlog: Fossil-Fuel Funded Operatives Litter the Mainstream Media, Despite Simple Fix
• 2012/12/12: WtD: Breaking: Australian Press Council release on Andrew Bolt misrepresenting science
• 2012/12/13: TP:JR: Oil Covered Pundits: Media Fails To Disclose Guests' Industry Affiliation 94 Percent Of The Time
• 2012/12/04: Guardian(UK): What is and isn't a scientific debate
  The media need to understand the difference between a genuine scientific debate, and the fact that a very vocal minority can disagree with an overwhelming consensus of evidence
• 2012/12/11: QuarkSoup: The Closing of the David Rose Hole
• 2012/12/11: TP:JR: The Salt Lake Tribune Editorializes 'A Killing Climate: Global Warming Unchecked'
  

  Big changes in the Discover & National Geographic blog realms:

• 2012/12/14: KSJT: Discover responds to departures of prominent bloggers
• 2012/12/12: CJR: Flight of the bloggers -- Despite recent departures, Discover is rebuilding fast
  

  Here is something for your library:

• 2012/12/09: ITRacker: [Book Review] _The Signal and the Noise_ by Nate Silver
  

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2012/12/12: Grist: David Roberts talks fracking on MSNBC's 'Up With Chris Hayes'
• 2012/12/13: PSinclair: "Chasing Ice" Clip - Awesome Calving Event
• 2012/12/15: NakedCapitalism: The Green Revolution: Raj Patel, Author, Activist, Economist
• 2012/12/16: Guardian(UK): Chasing Ice - review
• 2012/12/11: TP:JR: Interview: 'Chasing Ice' Star James Balog Talks Art, Science, Rationality, And Climate Denial
• 2012/12/11: DeSmogBlog: Oil and Gas Industry Set to Attack Matt Damon's "Promised Land"
• 2012/12/10: Guardian(UK): Best theatre of 2012, No 10: Ten Billion, Royal Court
  Our rundown of the year's best British theatre begins with a devastating and deceptively undramatic piece about climate change
• 
  

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

   

• 2012/12/12: CDreams: Citing Climate Change, Democrat AGs Sue Obama's EPA over Methane Emissions
  A coalition of seven states prepares to sue the bureau for failing to regulate oil and gas industries
• 2012/12/11: BBerg: States Weigh Suing EPA Over Oil, Gas Rules, New York Says
  New York and six other states said they plan to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for violating federal law by failing to regulate methane emissions from the oil and natural gas industry. The EPA violated the Clean Air Act by failing to address methane emissions in revised regulations this year, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said today in a statement. "Our coalition is putting EPA on notice that we are prepared to sue to force action on curbing climate change pollution from the oil and gas industry," Schneiderman said. The industry is the largest source of manmade methane emissions in the U.S., according to New York. The EPA is leaving almost 95 percent of these emissions uncontrolled, the state said.
• 
  

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

   

• 2012/12/14: P3: Methane as Battery
• 2012/12/12: S&R: When (and why) should an energy subsidy end?
• 2012/12/12: TP:JR: Clean Tech Is Challenged, But Its 'Death' Is Over-Hyped
• 2012/12/12: EurActiv: Energy chief: Cold winter will be 'critical' for Europe's supplies
  Europe's power grid stability is hanging in the balance this winter, with a cold snap liable to create a 'critical' situation, the director of one of Europe's five biggest power grids has told EurActiv.
• 2012/12/12: EneNews: University Study: Wind and solar can fully power the electric grid 99.9% of time... at same cost we pay now - "These results break the conventional wisdom" -Professor
• 2012/12/11: BizInsider: Green Energy Will Continue To Play A Tiny Role In 30 Years
• 2012/12/11: AutoBG: Energy outlook looks bad for biofuels, fuel prices and electric vehicles
• 2012/12/05: EIA: EIA projections show U.S. energy production growing faster than consumption through 2040
• 2012/12/14: EurActiv: Household electricity consumption reaches new high: Report
  After decreasing steadily for years, household electricity consumption in 2010 reached its highest level in two decades, says a report by the European Commission.
• 2012/12/14: P3: Renewables Can Carry the Load
• 2012/12/12: ICN: Clean Power Startups Aim to Break Monopoly of U.S. Utility Giants
  A small band of upstarts is quietly trying to innovate their way into a 100-year-old energy market dominated by utilities and fossil fuels. Can it work?
• 2012/12/09: LA Times: Rise in renewable energy will require more use of fossil fuels
  As the state attempts to reach the goal of producing one-third of its electricity from wind and solar sources by 2020, more reliable sources of traditional power will be needed as a backup.
• 2012/12/10: UDel: Wind, solar power paired with storage could be cost-effective way to power grid
  Renewable energy could fully power a large electric grid 99.9 percent of the time by 2030 at costs comparable to today's electricity expenses, according to new research...
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/12/09: DenverPost: Drilling spills reaching Colorado groundwater; state mulls test rules
  Oil and gas have contaminated groundwater in 17 percent of the 2,078 spills and slow releases that companies reported to state regulators over the past five years, state data show. The damage is worse in Weld County, where 40 percent of spills reach groundwater, the data show. Most of the spills are happening less than 30 feet underground -- not in the deep well bores that carry drilling fluids into rock.
• 2012/12/12: PhysOrg: Is the new boom in domestic natural gas production an economic bonanza or environmental disaster?
• 2012/12/12: BBC: Fracking: Shale gas decision by [UK] government awaited
• 2012/12/12: SlashDot: UT Professor Resigns Over Fracking Conflict of Interest
• 2012/12/13: al Jazeera: Energy-hungry China seeks shale gas supremacy
• 2012/12/13: EurActiv: Britain lifts shale gas ban despite earthquakes
  Britain lifted its ban on shale gas exploration on Thursday (13 December) despite environmental fears as it aims to become a European leader in a sector that has transformed the U.S. energy market. The approval of shale gas fracking from Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey comes approximately a year and a half after UK authorities halted the unconventional exploration process after it set off earth tremors at one site.
• 2012/12/11: Reuters: U.S. delays final fracking rules for federal lands
• 2012/12/12: CDreams: California Public Land Sold [by BLM] to Frackers Despite Public Outcry
• 2012/12/14: CNN: Opinion: Fracking is a threat to health and well-being
• 2012/12/13: TP:JR: Big Questions About UK Shale Gas
• 2012/12/14: ABC(Au): Elders oppose CSG plans
• 2012/12/13: BBC: Fracking: Untangling fact from fiction
• 2012/12/14: BBerg: Tougher Fracking Regulations Backed by 66%, Poll Shows
• 2012/12/14: CDreams: Fracking's Lure, Trap and Endless Damage
• 2012/12/09: TheCanadian: Cracks in Scientific Study Downplaying Risks of Fracking - Lead Scientist on Board of Energy Company
• 2012/12/10: TexasTrib: Texas Regulators Prepare Major Drilling Rule Changes
• 2012/12/09: EarthMag: Highlights of 2012: Outlook on natural gas
• 2012/12/11: OilChange: Imagine There's No Fracking
• 2012/12/10: TP:JR: U.S. Natural Gas Capacity Must Peak Soon To Achieve Sustainable Pathway
• 2012/12/10: TP:JR: Tainted Fracking Research: Three Strikes And Yer Out
• 2012/12/10: LoE: The frack-heads are dangerously deluded
• 2012/12/10: G&M: Fissures appear in scientists' assurances about safety of fracking
• 2012/12/10: NI: Fracking fraud
  [...] how industry used the work of Charles Groat, of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas, to discount concerns about the safety of fracking.
• 2012/12/09: CDreams: Is Fracking Coming to the Arctic?
  Geologist "highlights the potential of Alaska's shale resources" at Houston conference
• 
  

  On the gas and oil front:

   

• 2012/12/14: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Dated Brent Spot....108.18
  WTI Cushing Spot.....86.73
• 2012/12/: Exxon: [pdf] The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040
• 2012/12/13: OilDrum: Oil Watch: North America Liquid Fuel Production
• 2012/12/13: OilChange: Exxon's Dangerous Outlook
• 2012/12/14: EarlyWarning: The Bumpy Plateau Tilts Upward
• 2012/12/12: PWorld: John Kingston : US as oil production king needs an asterisk
• 2012/12/13: ABC(Au):TDU: The non-conventional oil revolution
• 2012/12/12: BBC: PetroChina to buy BHP's stake in Browse LNG project
  PetroChina has agreed a deal to buy BHP Billiton's stake in the Browse liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Western Australia. China's biggest oil and gas producer will pay $1.63bn (£1bn) for the stake.
• 2012/12/12: BBC: Total sells Nigeria oil stake to China's Sinopec
  Total has announced the sale of its 20% stake in a Nigerian offshore oilfield to the Chinese state-owned Sinopec. The French oil firm said its Chinese counterpart was paying $2.5bn (£1.6bn) for the stake in the OML 138 oil block.
• 2012/12/11: OilDrum: Will U.S. Oil Consumption Continue to Decline? by James Hamilton
• 2012/12/10: OilDrum: Oil Watch - Global Liquid Fuel Production Trends (EIA data)
• 2012/12/10: al Jazeera: Shell must face up to its liabilities in the Niger Delta
  The oil giant is responsible for cleaning the spills and leaks throughout Nigeria's southern regions, a new report says.
• 
  

  And in pipeline news:

   

• 2012/12/12: CSM: Enbridge set to invest $6.28 billion in oil pipeline
• 2012/12/11: CDreams: Dramatic Gas Line Explosion in West Virginia Closes Interstate
  

  Yes we have peak everything:

• 2012/12/14: Resilience: The Peak Oil Crisis: Deep in the Heart of Texas
• 2012/12/13: CassandrasLegacy: Climate change: Confessions of a Peak Oiler
• 2012/12/11: RigZone: Total: Oil Production to Peak at 98M Barrels per Day
• 2012/12/09: RI: The one chart about oil's future everyone should see
• 2012/12/05: LeMonde: Peak Oil Warning From an IMF Expert :Interview with Michael Kumhof
• 2012/12/09: Resilience: The one chart about oil's future everyone should see
• 2012/12/10: JQuiggin: Peak (thermal) coal?
  

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2012/12/11: BBerg: Cellulosic Biofuel to Surge in 2013 as First Plants Open
  Cellulosic biofuel companies will boost production almost 20-fold in 2013 as the first high-volume refineries go into operation, signaling a shift from an experimental fuel into a commercially viable industry. Production of the fuel made from crop waste, wood chips, household trash and other non-food organic sources will reach 9.6 million gallons (36 million liters) in 2013, up from less than 500,000 gallons this year...
• USDA:ERS: Growing palm oil supplies temper global vegetable oil prices [graph]
  

  The answer my friend...:

• 2012/12/13: NBF: Fabric windmill turbine blades could lower cost and weight
• 2012/12/16: ABC(Au): Flinders Island's windy future
  Flinders Island in Bass Strait plans to produce all its power from renewable energy sources.
• 
  

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

   

• 2012/12/13: ABC(Au): Australia joins US in $83m solar research plan
• 2012/12/13: TreeHugger: Small Charity Beats Oil Giant, Becomes Largest Seller of Solar Lights in Africa
• 2012/12/12: Eureka: Solar power prices to continue falling through 2025, experts say
• 2012/12/15: NBF: China increasing solar power installation target to 40 GW for 2015
• 2012/12/13: ABC(Au): Australia joins US in $83m solar research plan
  The Federal Government has announced an $83 million solar research program in partnership with the United States. The eight-year project will bring together six Australian universities, the CSIRO and the US department of energy. Its aim is to create new technology that will reduce the cost of solar power.
• 2012/12/08: TheDiplomat: Lights Out For China's Solar Power Industry?
• 2012/12/14: TreeHugger: Could You Benefit from Going Solar? Get a Free Solar Appraisal from Geostellar
• 2012/12/16: TP:JR: Get Ready, Utilities: Solar Is Coming
• 2012/12/11: TP:JR: U.S. Installs Record Amount Of Solar So Far In 2012: Analyst Calls It The 'Opening Act' For Q4 Boom
  

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2012/12/14: EurActiv: EU freezes Lithuanian nuclear plant decommissioning funds
• 2012/12/13: TreeHugger: World Nuclear Electricity Generation Down 5 Percent Since 2006
• 2012/12/12: BBC: New nuclear plant, Hinkley Point C, design unveiled
• 2012/12/15: NBF: China starts new nuclear construction and makes nuclear deals with Russia
• 2012/12/11: Nation(Pk): Japan may scrap nuclear plant
  

  Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:

• 2012/12/12: ScienceInsider: Agency Tells Congress That NIF Is Not Working
• 2012/12/11: NatureN: Laser fusion put on slow burn
  The US National Ignition Facility rethinks its strategy on achieving thermonuclear fusion in the lab, but fails to silence critics.
• 
  

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

   

• 2012/12/10: EurActiv: European renewable power grid rocked by cyber-attack
  A German power utility specialising in renewable energy was hit by a serious cyber-attack two weeks ago that lasted five days, knocking its internet communications systems offline, in the first confirmed digital assault against a European grid operator. "It was a DOS ('Denial Of Service') attack with a botnet behind it," Boris Schucht, the CEO of 50Hertz told EurActiv on the fringes of a Brussels renewables conference. "It blocked our internet domains so that in the first hours, all email and connectivity via the internet was blocked."
• 
  

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

   

• 2012/12/14: TP:JR: Stop-Start Engines Stop Waste, Start Jobs
  

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

• 2012/12/12: AutoBG: Daimler ramping up Smart Fortwo Electric Drive prodution to meet "high" demand
• 2012/12/11: TreeHugger: Tesla Model S 60kWh Gets Official EPA Ratings (95 MPGe, 208 Miles Range)
• 2012/12/11: TreeHugger: R.I.P. C-X75: Jaguar Cancels Plug-in Supercar
• 2012/12/07: FuelEcon: Fueleconomy.gov's Top Ten EPA-Rated Fuel Sippers (2013)
• 2012/12/09: AutoBG: Protean's In-wheel motors named Car And Driver's "Most Promising Technology"
  

  As for Energy Storage:

• 2012/12/11: FuturePundit: How Much Electric Vehicle Battery Prices Have Dropped
• 2012/12/11: Rice: Rice [University] cultivates green batteries from plant - purpurin cathode for lithium-ion batteries
• 2012/12/11: CUNY: Ancient Red Dye Powers New "Green" Battery
• 2012/12/11: CSM: A123 sale to China: threat to US security?
• 2012/12/10: CNN: China's Wanxiang wins auction for A123
  Chinese auto parts maker Wanxiang Group has prevailed in a court-sanctioned bidding war for the assets of lithium battery maker A123 Systems, a one-time darling of the U.S. electric car industry.
• 
  

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

   

• 2012/12/11: ABC(Au): Investment funds fail to plan for climate change
  The first global survey of the world's biggest 1,000 major investment funds has shown a huge number haven't factored in the risks of climate change.
• 
  

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

   

• 2012/12/14: LA Times: Climate change taken seriously by insurance industry, study says
• 2012/12/11: CBC: Insured storm losses top $1B in 2012
  

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

• 2012/12/14: TP:JR: December 14 News...
• 2012/12/13: TP:JR: December 13 News...
• 2012/12/12: TP:JR: December 12 News...
• 2012/12/11: TP:JR: December 11 News...
• 2012/12/10: TP:JR: December 10 News...
  

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2012/12/14: Resilience: ODAC Newsletter
• 2012/12/12: SkS: 2012 SkS Bi-Weekly News Roundup #9 by John Hartz
• 2012/12/11: BPA: What Tom Vilsack didn't say this week. Plus, More Agriculture News
  

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2012/12/13: UKISS: Watts up with GCRs
• 2012/12/12: JQuiggin: Return of 'Lord Monckton'
• 2012/12/15: PSinclair: Climate Denial "game changer" Fizzles. AP Poll Shows Once Again, Nature Bats Last.
• 2012/12/15: VV: No trend in global water vapor, another WUWT fail
• 2012/12/15: UKISS: Caveat Lector "let the reader beware"
• 2012/12/11: P3: Lack of Stone Tablets
• 2012/12/11: NakedCapitalism: How the Koch Brothers Manipulate Climate Change Studies
• 2012/12/11: DeSmogBlog: Oil and Gas Industry Set to Attack Matt Damon's "Promised Land"
• 2012/12/10: P3: Consensus Beats Evidence
• 2012/12/10: QuarkSoup: Warm November = Joe Bastardi Fail
• 2012/12/05: Forbes: Inside The Koch Empire: How The Brothers Plan To Reshape America
  

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2012/12/14: Grist: Mercury in seafood: Where does it come from?
  

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2012/12/12: TCoE: Bridging the Gaps
• 2012/12/12: Resilience: Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Forest by Vandana Shiva
• 2012/12/12: Wunderground: From the Lee Side: Penn State's Lee Grenci now a featured wunderblogger
• 2012/12/11: KSJT: National Geographic announces its Phenomena blog network (with an all-star cast)
• 2012/12/10: CCurrents: Responding Personally And Powerfully To The Climate Catastrophe
• 2012/12/13: CDreams: 'I'd Rather Fight Like Hell': Naomi Klein's Fierce New Resolve to Fight for Climate Justice -- 'Climate change is the human-rights struggle of our time'
• 2012/12/16: Guardian(UK): Should I boycott gigs because of their massive carbon footprints?
• 2012/12/12: GreenHerring: Leading climate tweeps
  

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

• Save The Arctic
• The Checks and Balances Project
• The Canadian Environment
• The Volcanic Explosivity Index
• Generation Anthropocene
• WWF News
• USDA:ERS: Growing palm oil supplies temper global vegetable oil prices [graph]
• Occupy Monsanto
• CACC: Canadians for Action on Climate Change
• LLNL: NIF - National Ignition Facility
• Seed Matters
• Wiki: Temperature of Planet Earth [542 million year record]
• Sierra Club Canada
• Watershed Sentinel - Environmental News Magazine from British Columbia, and the world!
• CGIAR: Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change
• The Common Sense Canadian
• Eradicating Ecocide in Canada - Fundamental Justice and Earth Law for the 99%

Low Key Plug

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(which includes some quotations),An overview of my writing is available here.

<regards>

-het

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

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

"Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias." -Wendell Berry

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