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| The weekly newsletter is up and running and looks like this. For free subscription click here |
| 'No man-made fix' for rising seas Even the most extreme geoengineering approaches will not stop sea levels from rising due to climate change, a study suggests. | 28th August 2010 |
| Stop Prop 23: The 'fact sheet' vs. the facts The economic benefits of climate and clean energy policies, such as California''s Global Warming Solutions Act, or AB 32, are clear. The Center for American Progress and this blog have reported on the opportunities for growth and job creation from AB 32 several times (see 'A California Campaign With Global Consequences' and Economists agree, don' t block AB 32!). The Stop the Dirty Energy Proposition coalition provides additional background here. Despite this, the oil- funded campaign to pass Proposition 23 that would repeal AB 32 is continuing to spill misinformation with a new 'Fact Sheet ... | 28th August 2010 |
| Oil & Gas Industries Spent Record $175 Million Lobbying Against Climate Action fuelingwashington. jpeg The oil and gas industries unleashed a massive $175 million lobbying spree last year to derail U. S. efforts to address climate change, according to a new series of reports by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). Open. Secrets. org blogger Evan Mackinder reveals just how badly oil and gas interests pummeled the environmental community, which spent its own record $22.4 million trying to convince Washington to get its act together to fight global warming. As CRP notes, "Goliath whipped David." CRP''s new series, titled "Fueling Washington: How Oil Money Drives Politics," details the oil and gas industries' outsized influence in Washington. | 28th August 2010 |
| Climate activism: is the trial more important than the protest? As nine climate change activists are fined by a Scottish judge for breaking into Aberdeen airport, we look at how courtroom manoeuvres form a crucial part of the package | 28th August 2010 |
| Peak predictions: mixing water and oil as global resources dwindle Oil and safe drinking water are on parallel courses to depletion " a scarcity that will lead to starvation, disease and warfare. The issue here is drinking water. And there is a lot less of that than seawater. Due to a number of management issues, made worse by climate change, drinking water is fast becoming a geopolitical resource to rival oil " a flashpoint at various places around the globe. read more | 28th August 2010 |
| Yes, we broke the law as climate change activists. And this is why | Dan Glass We' re not terrorists, we' re people who believe delivering our message on climate change is worth being charged and fined. In June 2010, nine climate change activists who had broken into Aberdeen airport in protest against the soaring CO2 emissions caused by aviation were convicted of a breach of the peace. On 25 August, after taking our urgent message on climate change seriously, the judge and court imposed on us very modest fines, ranging from £300 to £700 each and adding up to a total of £4,000-£5,000. This was the first climate trial in Scotland''s history. | 28th August 2010 |
| British Gas launches solar panels scheme with '£1k a year profit' claim Energy company says 12 million homeowners could save £1,000 a year, as it looks to take advantage of government scheme. More than 12 million homeowners would be in line to save up to £1,000 a year, should they install solar panels, says British Gas. The utility firm is the latest in a host of companies offering to install electricity- generating systems on homes to take advantage of a government scheme that pays the owners of solar panels for the 'renewable' electricity they generate. The sudden allure of solar power is less to do with planet- saving and more to do with companies or individuals banking the lucrative feed- in- tariffs (Fits) for every unit of electricity generated " currently 41.3p per KWh, irrespective of whether you consume the power at the time or not. British Gas says the Fits payments can be worth £1, ... | 28th August 2010 |
| Resource wars: the global crisis behind BHP Billiton's bid for Potash Corp The battle for the fertiliser giant points to a near future in which world food supplies may need to rise by 70%BHP Billiton''s £28bn hostile bid for Canada''s Potash Corporation sets the scene for one of mining''s biggest takeover battles. But this is more than a clash between multinationals intent on self- aggrandisement. Certainly, the usual arguments are wheeled out by the predator about diversification, synergies and the prospect of fatter profits, while the target company complains about the offer price being pitched too low. But behind the rhetoric is a bidding war that lays bare the global struggle for resources on a planet struggling with water and food shortages, overpopulation and pollution. | 28th August 2010 |
| Peak oil alarm revealed by secret official talks Behind government dismissals of 'alarmist' fears there is growing concern over critical future energy supplies. Speculation that government ministers are far more concerned about a future supply crunch than they have admitted has been fuelled by the revelation that they are canvassing views from industry and the scientific community about "peak oil".The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is also refusing to hand over policy documents about "peak oil" " the point at which oil production reaches its maximum and then declines " under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, despite releasing others in which it admits "secrecy around the topic is probably not good".Experts say they have received a letter from David Mackay, chief scientific adviser to the DECC, asking for information and advice on peak oil amid a growing campaign from industrialists such as Sir Richard Branson for the government to put contingency plans ... | 28th August 2010 |
| Hockey Stick : Still Sticking Welcome to the slightly revised and updated Hockey Stick :- [link] deltoid/2010/08/a_ new_ hockey_ stick_ mcshane_ and. php Yes, the Earth''s temperature is warming at a very fast pace. No, even though the statistical models here may be a little questionable, the graph still looks the same, more or less, to the sterling work of Michael Mann et al. (et al. = et alia = 'and the others'). Quelle surprise pas ! (I included a little French in here because Steve Mc. Intyre, the most infamous Global Warming septic oops, sorry, 'sceptic' nooo, 'skeptic' is Canadian, a famously bilingual country, or rather a country with a bilingual state, but I' m not implying that 'bilingual' means 'speaking with forked tongue'). | 28th August 2010 |
| Right and Wrong Why climate science divides people along political lines. | 28th August 2010 |
| On the frontline of climate change Irrigated by one of the world''s mightiest river systems, the Murray- Darling Basin yields nearly half of Australia''s fresh produce. But the basin is ailing, and scientists fear that as climate change grips the driest inhabited continent, its main foodbowl could become a global warming ground zero. | 28th August 2010 |
| Kyoto targets are impossible to verify In 2012 rich nations must prove that they have cut emissions in accordance with their targets " but that may be an impossible task | 28th August 2010 |
| The next best thing to oil The energy from concentrating solar power is already being used to generate hydrogen " it''s a short step from there to liquid hydrocarbons | 28th August 2010 |
| Is climate change burning Russia? For weeks Russia has sweltered, recording its highest ever temperatures " here is New Scientist''s guide to the causes and consequences | 28th August 2010 |
| Soaring Arctic temperatures - a warning from history With carbon dioxide levels near our own, the Pliocene Arctic may have warmed much more than we thought " and today''s Arctic could go the same way | 28th August 2010 |
| Monckton makes it up Guest commentary by Barry R. Bickmore, Brigham Young University If you look around the websites dedicated to debunking mainstream climate science, it is very common to find Lord Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount of Brenchley, cited profusely. Indeed, he has twice testified about climate change before committees of the U. S. Congress, even though he has no formal scientific training. But if he has no training, why has he become so influential among climate change contrarians? After examining a number of his claims, I have concluded that he is influential because he delivers 'silver bullets,' i. e., clear, concise, and persuasive arguments. | 28th August 2010 |
| Happy 35th birthday, global warming! Global warming is turning 35! Not only has the current spate of global warming been going on for about 35 years now, but also the term 'global warming' will have its 35th anniversary next week. On 8 August 1975, Wally Broecker published his paper 'Are we on the brink of a pronounced global warming?' in the journal Science. That appears to be the first use of the term 'global warming' in the scientific literature (at least it''s the first of over 10,000 papers for this search term according to the ISI database of journal articles). | 28th August 2010 |
| An icy retreat Guest Commentary by Dirk Notz, MPI Hamburg It''s almost routine by now: Every summer, many of those interested in climate change check again and again the latest data on sea- ice evolution in the Arctic. Such data are for example available on a daily basis from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. And again and again in early summer the question arises whether the most recent trend in sea- ice extent might lead to a new record minimum, with a sea- ice cover that will be smaller than that in the record summer of 2007. However, before looking at the possible future evolution of Arctic sea ice in more detail, it might be a good idea to briefly re- capitulate some events of the previous winter, because some of those are quite relevant for the current state of the sea- ice cover. | 28th August 2010 |
| UN board could rein in $2.7 billion carbon market (AP) -- An obscure U. N. board that oversees a $2.7 billion market intended to cut heat- trapping gases has agreed to take steps that could lead to it eventually reining in what European and U. S. environmentalists are calling a huge scam. | 28th August 2010 |
| Global coal supplies: It might be worse than anyone thinks My latest column on Scitizen entitled "Global Coal Supplies: It Might Be Worse Than Anyone Thinks" has now been posted. Here is the teaser: A new study on global coal supplies suggests a worldwide peak in production from existing fields in 2011.....Read more | 28th August 2010 |
| The end of prevention It is a frequent conceit among humans that they are at the beginning of some new important era or at the end of a previous grand or decadent era. It is quite boring to imagine oneself simply in the ongoing stream of an already well- established pattern of life that will neither reach a climax nor inaugurate a new epoch. What if, a friend of mine proposed, we are not approaching a point that will tip us into a grand ecological catastrophe which we are called upon to prevent? What if we are in the middle of that catastrophe and it began some time ago? So much of the environmental community is focused on preventing this catastrophe. | 28th August 2010 |
| Whither the weak in the post-peak oil world? It is often said that the test of any civilization is how it treats its weakest members. Those who are compromised physically, mentally or emotionally create a sort of live- action Rorschach test. Do the weak among us evoke our compassion or our scorn? If we are among the lucky ones who have our full faculties, our reaction to the weak says more about our view of the disfigured, stricken and defeated parts of our own psyche--the parts which make us feel most vulnerable and ashamed--than it does about the weak among us. Even if we feel compassion for those less fortunate, we are rarely called upon to find the limits of that compassion. | 28th August 2010 |
| Experts urge faster and more relevant U.N. climate reports OSLO (Reuters) - The U. N. panel of climate scientists should be more nimble at highlighting global warming trends and at fixing mistakes, experts said ahead of the planned August 30 release of a review of the group''s work. | 28th August 2010 |
| Russian heat wave dents hopes of climate "winners" OSLO (Reuters) - Russia''s summer heat wave has dimmed prospects that northern countries will "win" from climate change thanks to factors such as longer crop- growing seasons or fewer deaths from winter cold, experts say. | 28th August 2010 |
| Global Growth of Plants Is Offset by Drought, New Study Shows The steady growth of global plant productivity in the 1980s and 1990s, spurred by warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons, has now been reversed because of the growing impacts of drought, particularly in the southern hemisphere, according to a new study. Examining data from NASA''s Terra satellite, researchers at the University of Montana determined that plant growth in the past decade began to decline slightly, after two decades of expansion. In the 1980s and 1990s, plant productivity increased by 6 percent, but in the 2000s it decreased by 1 percent, according to the study, published in the journal Science. Some Click to enlarge. NASAPlant productivity, 2003 scientists believed that a warmer world would stimulate plant productivity because of lengthened growing seasons and greater concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air. | 28th August 2010 |
| Food prices soar in Russia after drought by Agence France- Presse. MOSCOW- Prices of basic foodstuffs like buckwheat and flour have soared in Russia over the past month as the effects of its worst ever drought hit supplies, statistics showed Wednesday. Inflation in Russia was 0.2 percent for the week of August 17-23, considerably higher than the figure before the drought and the third week in a row that prices have risen by this amount, the state statistics office said. Most alarmingly, the price of Russian staple buckwheat- enjoyed by generations for breakfast or as an accompaniment to meat- rose a very sharp 8.6 percent in the space of the week. | 28th August 2010 |
| New Yorkers Begin to See How Much They Have to Lose From Climate Change NEW YORK -- Lowering the energy consumption of the Empire State Building may seem bold and significant -- and it is. But the ... | 28th August 2010 |
| Pro-Environment Groups Outmatched, Outspent in Battle Over Climate Change Legislation by Evan Mackinder It was supposed to be their time. With significant majorities in Congress, a president promising action and favorable public opinion all on their side, many environmentalists believed their political stars had properly -- and finally -- aligned. Sensing the unique opportunity to address global warming on a national scale, environmental interest groups poured considerable ... | 28th August 2010 |
| Massive 40% decline in ocean's phytoplankton puts entire food chain under threat Phytoplankton, described as the 'fuel' on which marine ecosystems run, are experiencing declines of about 1 per cent of the average total a year. | 28th August 2010 |
| Rising temperatures reducing ability of plants to absorb carbon, study warns Research shows warming in the past decade has caused droughts that have reduced the number of plants available to soak up CO2 Rising temperatures in the past decade have reduced the ability of the world''s plants to soak up carbon from the atmosphere, scientists said today. Large- scale droughts have wiped out plants that would have otherwise absorbed an amount of carbon equivalent to all man- made ... | 28th August 2010 |
| Ice sheet melt in Greenland melting at record rate The Greenland ice sheet is melting at a record rate due to global warming, according to a British- led expedition currently taking measurements from the treacherous glaciers. | 28th August 2010 |
| Proposition 23: Be careful what you wish for, you might get it! Climate change continues to appear on the electoral agenda globally, but this November in California it will be front and centre for the state''s voters. AB 32, the landmark emissions reduction legislation of the Schwarzenegger administration is under threat. Specifically, a proposition is now on the November ballot to suspend AB 32 until the economy improves. Proposition 23: Suspends State laws requiring reduced greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, until California''s unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters. Requires State to abandon implementation of comprehensive greenhouse- gas- reduction program that includes increased renewable energy and cleaner fuel requirements, and mandatory emission reporting and fee requirements for major polluters such as power plants and oil refineries, until suspension is lifted. | 28th August 2010 |
| Climate Extremes: Beyond Loaded Dice A climatologist proposes a new way to convey how a warming climate will affect extreme weather. | 28th August 2010 |
| The Case of the Missing Climate Pledge Obama''s pledge to invest in energy research seems to have vanished from White House Web sites. | 28th August 2010 |
| Scientists See Links From Asian Floods to Russian Heat Climate experts chart air patterns that relate extreme Asian rains and Russian heat. | 28th August 2010 |
| More Climate Camp action against RBS via Bright Green Scotland On a related note, this article in the New Yorker is eye- popping. An excerpt: The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry- especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers' corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst''s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a 'kingpin of climate science denial.' The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid Exxon. Mobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. | 28th August 2010 |
| Flotilla of stinging jellyfish hit Spanish beaches A vast flotilla of small, virtually undetectable jellyfish have stung hundreds of people on Spanish beaches this week a swimmer''s nightmare that biologists say will become increasingly common due to climate change and overfishing. | 28th August 2010 |
| Q+A - Why Australia needs a price on carbon Australia is the world''s top exporter of coal which generates more than 80 percent of its power transports most goods by road and cars clog its cities. | 28th August 2010 |
| Wheat Gains on Signs of Strengthened Demand Following Russian Export Ban Wheat rose for the third time in four sessions as demand builds for inventories from the U. S., the worlds largest shipper, after Russia banned foreign sales amid the worst drought in at least 50 years. | 28th August 2010 |
| How Will Climate Change Impact Bread? Part 2 [More] | 28th August 2010 |
| Putin drills permafrost in Yakutia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has visited the Russian- German research expedition Lena-2010 in Yakutia. He promised the researchers to provide funding in exchange for an exact forecast of global climate change. | 28th August 2010 |
| German scientist hands Putin frosty climate rebuke Prime Minister Vladimir Putin queried Monday whether man was to blame for climate change on a visit to the remote Russian Arctic only to find himself bluntly contradicted by a German scientist. | 28th August 2010 |
| Climate change is bad for nuclear power, industry needs a shrinking cap on carbon to survive Conservatives who oppose clean energy and real climate action typically tout uber- expensive nuclear power as the solution (see Lamar Alexander calls nuclear 'the cheap clean energy solution,' renews GOP call for 100 new nukes, which would cost some $1 trillion). CAP''s Richard W. Caperton explains in this Wonk Room cross post how failure to pursue genuine action on climate change " a shrinking cap and rising price on carbon " actually harms the industry (see also '2009 summer heatwave puts a third of French nukes out of action'). Nuclear reactor developers have a compelling reason to support a cap on carbon pollution ... | 28th August 2010 |
| Mali Nomads Flee Drought Nomadic communities in northern Mali''s desert regions are facing one of the most serious droughts of the last twenty years. | 28th August 2010 |
| Pachauri cleared but smears will continue A review of the IPCC chairman''s financial relationships reveals a scrupulously honest man has been much maligned Read KPMG''s report on Pachauri''s finances Rajendra Pachauri: Climate change has no time for delay or denial. Has anyone been as badly maligned as Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?In December, the Sunday Telegraph carried a long and prominent feature written by Christopher Booker and Richard North, titled: Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri. The subtitle alleged that Pachauri has been "making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies". | 28th August 2010 |
| Australia's capital sets 40 percent carbon cut law CANBERRA (Reuters) - The government of an Australian territory said on Thursday it will enact tough carbon cutting laws, a step that comes after a national election that punished the ruling Labor party over lack of action on climate change. | 28th August 2010 |
| Spurred by Warming Climate, Beetles Threaten Coffee Crops Coffee production has long been vulnerable to drought or excess rains. But recently, a tiny insect that thrives in warmer temperatures - the coffee berry borer - has been spreading steadily, devastating coffee plants in Africa, Latin America, and around the world. BY ERICA WESTLY | 28th August 2010 |
| For more news, click here >> News from previous days is below |
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| UK government axes green watchdog The government is to scrap the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), its independent watchdog and advisory body on sustainability. | 25th July 2010 |
| Friedman on climate inaction: We're Gonna Be Sorry For any first time visitors here because of Tom Friedman''s column in the Sunday NY Times, 'We' re Gonna Be Sorry,' you might start with 'An Introduction to Climate Progress.' When I first heard on Thursday that Senate Democrats were abandoning the effort to pass an energy/ climate bill that would begin to cap greenhouse gases that cause global warming and promote renewable energy that could diminish our addiction to oil, I remembered something that Joe Romm, the climateprogress. org blogger, once said: The best thing about improvements in health care is that all the climate- change deniers are now going to live long enough to see how wrong they were. | 25th July 2010 |
| The world - futilely waits for U.S. leadership on climate 'If we look at the Indian scene and look at the actions being taken by state and central governments, it''s a little bit difficult to understand why it is so difficult to get strong legislation passed domestically in the United States,' said Arabinda Misrah, director of the Climate Change Division at The Energy Resources Institute in India, at a CAP panel discussion on Thursday. Misrah was joined by climate experts from around the world, who described continuing and ambitious efforts to reduce carbon emissions in Europe and the developing world and expressed confusion and dismay at the U. S. | 25th July 2010 |
| Protests as Australian PM delays climate action Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard Friday announced a new "citizens assembly" to guide action on global warming in a major pre- election speech which was hit by protests and condemned by critics. | 25th July 2010 |
| An evil atmosphere is forming around geoengineering Right- wing think tanks that deny climate change is even happening are advocating climate engineering to fix it. Don' t heed them, warns Clive Hamilton | 25th July 2010 |
| Damselflies in distress forced back to UK by climate change Damselflies don' t sound like they' d do anything as dramatic as invading anywhere, and the dainty damselfly sounds like it would do so least of all. But that''s what''s happening in southern England, as several species of these delicate, smaller relatives of the dragonflies cross over from the continent and start establishing populations here. | 25th July 2010 |
| Hudson Bay polar bears 'could soon be extinct' Polar bears in the Hudson Bay area of Canada are likely to die out in the next three decades, possibly sooner, as global warming melts more Arctic ice and thus reduces their hunting opportunities, according to Canadian biologists. | 25th July 2010 |
| Beijing fund warns on Kyoto CO2 offset rule changes LONDON (Reuters) - A Chinese government fund has told a U. N. panel it supports project developers which earn carbon offsets under a lucrative Kyoto Protocol scheme, and which rejects the idea that they are over- compensated. | 25th July 2010 |
| UK seas cleaner but getting warmer and higher: government LONDON (Reuters) - Britain''s coasts have become cleaner but sea levels and temperatures are rising due to climate change, a government report said on Wednesday. | 25th July 2010 |
| U.N. lists Kyoto plan B options if no climate deal LONDON (Reuters) - The U. N.'s climate agency has for the first time detailed contingency options if the world cannot agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose present round expires in 2012 with no new deal in sight. | 25th July 2010 |
| The Montford Delusion Guest commentary by Tamino If you don' t know much about climate science, or about the details of the controversy over the 'hockey stick,' then A. W. Montford''s book The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science might persuade you that not only the hockey stick, but all of modern climate science, is a fraud perpetrated by a massive conspiracy of climate scientists and politicians, in order to guarantee an unending supply of research funding and political power. That idea gets planted early, in the 6th paragraph of chapter 1. The chief focus is the original hockey stick, a reconstruction of past temperature for the northern hemisphere covering the last 600 years by Mike Mann, Ray Bradley, and Malcolm Hughes (1998, Nature, 392, 779, doi:10.1038/33859, available here), hereafter called 'MBH98 (the reconstruction was later extended back to a ... | 25th July 2010 |
| Heat wave warms frigid Baltic Sea waters A heat wave searing the Baltic region has warmed the usually frigid waters of the Baltic Sea to temperatures usually seen in more tropical climes, experts said Friday. | 25th July 2010 |
| Warming climate means harsher smog season for California (Phys. Org. com) -- Rising temperatures from climate change will increase ozone levels in California`'s major air basins, according to a new report to the California Air Resources Board from scientists at UC Davis and UC Berkeley. | 25th July 2010 |
| German power plant testing CO2-scrubbing algae Swedish energy group Vattenfall said it had launched a major pilot project Thursday using algae to absorb greenhouse gas emissions from a coal- fired power plant in eastern Germany. | 25th July 2010 |
| Climate change law's $63 million fee delayed by California California, facing a ballot initiative to roll back its landmark climate change law, has pushed back a $63 million fee to pay for the legislation until after the November elections. The California Air Resources Board was supposed to begin collecting fees from oil companies, utilities and other energy producers last year to pay for the greenhouse gas reduction law. Environment news from Mc. Clatchy DC News on the environment from The Sacramento Bee | 25th July 2010 |
Now David Cameron shafts the environment
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Clive Hamilton: 'solving climate change is out of the question' Author Clive Hamilton on why we've left it too late to stop climate change, his horror over geoengineering and the urgent need to become citizens rather than consumers |
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| 2010 already 'hottest ever' for 9 countries Moscow is on track for its hottest July in history, according to the Russian Weather Service, with a state of emergency to be declared for 19 Russian provinces. The heat has got so bad that a record number of Russians have been drowning in swimming accidents as they take to the water to escape the heat. Over 1200 Russians drowned in June, with another 233 dying between July 5 and 12. The heatwave in Russia is also leading to panic buying and widespread shortages of essential goods. The same report by meterologist Jeff Masters found that: A withering heat wave of unprecedented intensity brought the hottest temperatures in recorded history to six nations in Asia and Africa, plus the Asian portion of Russia, in June 2010. | 25th July 2010 |
| About Last Winter So, was the exceptionally cold winter 2009 " 2010 in North America, Europe and parts of Asia a sign of Global Cooling ? Noooo. Not a bit of it. It was down to 'internal variability' of the climate system :- [link] pubs/ crossref/2010/2010GL043830.shtml 'GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 37, L14703, 6 PP., 2010 : doi:10.1029/2010GL043830 : Northern Hemisphere winter snow anomalies: ENSO, NAO and the winter of 2009/10 : Seager et al conclude that the negative NAO [North Atlantic Oscillation] and El Nino [positive ENSO] event were responsible for the northern hemisphere snow anomalies of winter 2009/10 ' Expect fireworks and/ or damp squibs from denier- sceptic quarters. | 25th July 2010 |
| London builds bike 'superhighways' with groundbreaking blue paint by Jonathan Hiskes. This week, London opened the first two of twelve planned 'cycle superhighways,' which Mayor Boris Johnson hailed as the dawn of a 'cycle revolution.' To keep bikers safe and speedy, the two eight- mile tracks use the innovative technology of ... bright blue paint. Otherwise, they look a lot like any other roadside bike lanes, lacking even the physical barriers and elevation that cycletracks use to separate bikers from traffic. (Even stranger, the tracks have bikers on the left side of the road.*) The 'highways' at least form continuous routes that minimize stops and let drivers know where to look out for bikers. | 25th July 2010 |
| On the death of the climate bill by David Roberts. As Jon noted, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has officially announced that there will be no climate bill this year. But Jon''s post doesn' t fully convey the extent of the capitulation. What''s happened is total and complete surrender. There''s no silver lining in this cloud. Not only will the bill not contain any restrictions on greenhouse gases- not even a watered- down utility- only cap- it won' t even contain the two other key policies that would have moved clean energy forward: the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) and the energy efficiency standards. | 25th July 2010 |
| Switzerland: Heatwave causes problems in broccoli and leek cultivation Crops in Switzerland suffer as a result of the present heatwave. Especially the warm nights are bad for growing plants. In Seeland heat and drought have prevailed for an entire month. The drought is, because of the high level of subterranean water, not a problem, according to Hans- Peter Kocher of Inforama Seeland. The problem, however, is the heat which hardly decreases during the night. The vegetable plants recuperate insufficiently and this sometimes even prevents flowering. Especially with the broccoli, fennel and leek cultivation crop failures are reported. Also spinach cultivation is in danger, as because of the present climate, the seeds cannot germinate. | 25th July 2010 |
| Hot weather shrinks size of German fries BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - French fries in Germany could be significantly shorter this year due to the heatwave that has baked Germany and much of Europe this month, the German Farmers' Association (DBV) said on Friday. Hot and dry weather has led to a meager harvest of extra- large potatoes used to produce the ideal- length French fry. "The French fries industry and consumers will have to brace themselves for shorter fries," said spokeswoman Verena Telaar, adding that smaller potatoes mean that fries will probably be 45 millimeters (1.8 inches) long at best, down from the usual 55 mm (2.2 inches). | 25th July 2010 |
| Russian heat wave kills fish, crops Fish breeders in central Russia have lost much of their sturgeon and trout to a scorching heat wave that continued Saturday. At Volgorechensk fish farm, near the Volga River, farmers say they have been forced to throw away 12 tonnes of fish because of high temperatures. "The big fish of six, seven, eight years old suffer and die the most. Little fish handle the heat better, but the big ones you see what''s happening," said chief fish breeder at the farm, Irina Tikhomirova. Specialists at the fish farm were trying to rescue the remaining fish by transferring them from the farm tanks to cages in the river, where the water is cooler. | 25th July 2010 |
| Proposition 23: Be careful what you wish for, you might get it! Climate change continues to appear on the electoral agenda globally, but this November in California it will be front and centre for the state''s voters. AB 32, the landmark emissions reduction legislation of the Schwarzenegger administration is under threat. Specifically, a proposition is now on the November ballot to suspend AB 32 until the economy improves. Proposition 23: Suspends State laws requiring reduced greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, until California''s unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters. Requires State to abandon implementation of comprehensive greenhouse- gas- reduction program that includes increased renewable energy and cleaner fuel requirements, and mandatory emission reporting and fee requirements for major polluters such as power plants and oil refineries, until suspension is lifted. | 25th July 2010 |
| ExxonMobil Gave $1.5M to Climate Denier Groups Last Year, Breaking Its Pledge To Stop Funding Denial Machine GP- Exxon. jpg Exxon. Mobil gave $1.5 million to climate deniers and industry front groups known for working to create doubt about global warming, attacking the integrity of climate scientists, and protecting the status quo for polluters, according to a front- page story in the Times of London today. Contrary to its stated commitment to stop funding climate denier groups, the Exxon funding spigot remained as open as the BP gusher, continuing to pollute the media landscape with oil- soaked misinformation designed to cripple international action on climate change. Greenpeace''s Exxon. Secrets project has documented the nearly $25 million spent by Exxon. Mobil since 1998 to fund climate denier groups. Exxon- funded groups used their latest infusion of oil money to create a media frenzy over the 'Climategate' non- scandal and other efforts to derail progress towards an international agreement to fight climate change at the COP-15 ... | 25th July 2010 |
| With No Obama Push, Senate Punts on Climate The lack of a big push from Obama is likely one reason the Senate appears to be punting on climate. | 25th July 2010 |
| Climate change should be billed as a 'health' not 'environmental' disaster Public may be more likely to accept responsibility for climate change and support mitigation action if they see it as a threat to human health, suggests research | 25th July 2010 |
| Dems roll over, abandon climate bill. will citizenry follow suit? And so we have it. At noon today (PST), we saw the predictable collapse of Democrat resolve to address the most serious crisis of our times...We can point fingers at Washington, DC, but we should be pointing them at ourselves. read more | 25th July 2010 |
| Climate documentary "The Age of Stupid" -- free online viewing For only one more week as a part of our Summer. Fest online Film Festival, the award winning documentary film "The Age of Stupid" will be available to watch for free at Snag. Films. com or in embedded form at Energy Bulletin. read more | 25th July 2010 |
| Cool roofs save money, save energy, cut pollution and directly reduce warming! What wildly underfunded climate solution can achieve all of these goals simultaneously: Slow global warming by increasing the reflectivity of the Earth (geo- engineering) Reduce local temperatures in the hottest cities (adaptation) Reduce fossil CO2 emissions (mitigation) Save U. S. consumers and businesses billions of dollars in energy costs Reduce urban smog and hence cardio- pulmonary disease Create more than 100,000 jobs in two years? The answer is a major effort to make roofs (and pavements) whiter and/ or more reflective, which should be coupled with a major urban tree- planting effort. read more | 25th July 2010 |
| Big Oil Makes War on the Planet Our addiction to oil is now blowing back on the civilization that can' t do without its gushers and can' t quite bring itself to imagine a real transition to alternative energies. | 25th July 2010 |
| Herpes virus wipes out millions of Kent oysters Fears that containment area imposed in parts of Kent comes too late as wild oysters believed to be infected by outbreak. Fisheries inspectors have banned the movement of oysters from parts of Kent after an outbreak of herpes devastated stocks at a shellfish farm in Whitstable. More than 8 million oysters are estimated to have been wiped out by the virus at Seasalter Shellfish in the town, a spokesman for the fish health inspectorate said. A containment area covering the Swale, the Thames and the north Kent coast has been established to prevent the virus spreading, but inspectors fear wild oysters are already infected, making it nearly impossible to eradicate the disease completely. The fish health inspectorate was called in to investigate the shell fish farm after staff reported an unusual death rate among its Pacific oyster stocks. The shellfish tested positive for the Os. HV-1 virus, a particularly lethal strain ... | 25th July 2010 |
| How scrapping the SDC to save money will cost the taxpayer a fortune | George Monbiot The decision to stop funding the Sustainable Development Commission is the definitive false economy. Saving money can cost a fortune. The government''s decision to scrap the Sustainable Development Commission will save £3m a year. It is likely to cost the taxpayer many times more. The environment department''s announcement that it would stop funding the SDC coincided this morning with the publication of the commission''s latest (and last) report on the government''s green progress. This report shows that even the modest measures the previous government introduced to save energy and water and reduce waste have cut the state''s annual bills by £60m to £70m. It goes on to find hundreds of millions of pounds of further possible savings, by identifying the kind of waste which " or so you would imagine " the government would be glad to uncover. | 25th July 2010 |
| The world's first molten salt concentrating solar power plant 'Archimede' demonstration solar plant in Sicily becomes the first to use molten salts to store energy overnight. This month, the Italian utility Enel unveiled "Archimede", the first Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant in the world to use molten salts for heat transfer and storage, and the first to be fully integrated to an existing combined- cycle gas power plant. Archimede is a 5 MW plant located in Priolo Gargallo (Sicily), within Europe''s largest petrochemical district. The breakthrough project was co- developed by Enel, one of World''s largest utilities, and ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. Several CSP plants already operate around the world, mainly in the US and Spain. | 25th July 2010 |
| Dead penguins wash up on Brazil's beaches Scientists suspect starvation from changing water temperatures or overfishing after 500 birds found in 10 days. Hundreds of penguins that have apparently starved to death are washing up on the beaches of Brazil, worrying scientists who are investigating what exactly killed them. About 500 penguins had been found in the last 10 days on Peruibe, Praia Grande and Itanhaem beaches in São Paulo state, said Thiago do Nascimento, a biologist at the Peruibe aquarium. Most were Magellan penguins migrating north from Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands in search of food in warmer waters. Many are not finding it: autopsies done on several birds have revealed their stomachs were entirely empty " indicating they likely starved to death, Nascimento said. Scientists are investigating whether strong currents and colder than normal waters have hurt populations of the species that make up the penguins' diet, or whether human activity may be playing a ... | 25th July 2010 |
| Funding cuts will finish Britain's clean energy race | Chris Goodall The UK is losing out to countries with poorer natural resources but greater willingness to invest. In the 1970s the UK invested about 0.15% of GDP each year in research and development (RD) into providing cheaper and cleaner energy. Britain was putting more public money into nuclear power and other new sources of electricity than almost any other economy. From the mid-1980s the amount invested each year has fallen almost continuously. The figure today is about 0.01%, one 15th of what it was a generation ago. We now sit at the bottom of the international league. The US, for example, spends three times as much as a percentage of its GDP, Japan nine times as much. The UK government announced last week that it was cutting yet more money from of the energy RD budget. | 25th July 2010 |
| You can't explain away climate change Some hold that global warming stopped in 1998, but scientists know better. | 25th July 2010 |
| Why a climate bill failed If you wanted to design a threat that our political system couldn' t address, here''s what you' d do: You' d make the pain of doing nothing come much later, but the pain of doing something begin right now. You' d concentrate the costs of failure in poor countries, while the costs of a policy solution would be concentrated in certain regions of America. You' d make it hard to solve without the imposition of a new tax. You' d make sure that some of the largest and richest industries in the world had an enormous amount to fear from that tax. | 25th July 2010 |
| US Senate deals blow to global climate talks A year and a half after President Barack Obama breathed new life into global talks on a climate treaty, the United States is back in a familiar role -- the holdout. The Senate''s decision Thursday to shelve legislation on climate change is certain to cast a long shadow over December''s meeting in Cancun, Mexico that will work on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Obama''s Democratic allies acknowledged they lacked votes to approve the first- ever US plan restricting carbon emissions blamed for global warming. The task is unlikely to get easier soon, with Democrats facing tight congressional elections in November. | 25th July 2010 |
| The earth warms up, but Congress won't act on climate change How hot does it have to get for the climate change deniers to admit global warming is caused by human activity? | 25th July 2010 |
| Climate Bill, R.I.P. Instead of taking the fight to big polluters, President Obama has put global warming on the back burner | 25th July 2010 |
| Overcome by Heat and Inertia This city just endured its hottest June since records began in 1872, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. So did Miami. Atlanta suffered its second- hottest June, and Dallas had its third hottest. In New York, the weather was relatively pleasant: only the fourth- hottest June since 1872. Then again, New York is on pace for its hottest July on record. Yet when United States senators and their aides file into work on Wednesday, on yet another 90-degree day, they may be on the verge of deciding to do approximately nothing about global warming. The needed 60 votes don' t seem to be there, at least not at the moment. | 25th July 2010 |
| Ethics and the Greenhouse An ethicist explains why he dove into climate blogging. | 15th July 2010 |
| 'Resilient growth' for renewables The building of new renewable energy sources outstrips new fossil fuel power plants in EU and US during 2009, a report says. | 15th July 2010 |
| The challenge of China's green technology policy I would like to close with an observation that I gained from watching World Cup soccer over the past few weeks. In particular, I was struck by the recurring juxtaposition of two advertising billboards in the background of the soccer pitch, one in red by an American company- Mc. Donald' s, the other in blue by a Chinese company- Yingli Solar. I thought to myself, this is the World Cup, the world''s biggest sporting stage, and China is proudly showcasing the future of its economy with a solar technology company. What is the U. S. best able to showcase? Hamburgers. I believe this image speaks volumes about the state of play not only in the global clean energy race, but also in the global competitiveness landscape. | 15th July 2010 |
| Climate scientists: 'The urgent need to act cannot be overstated.' - "Climate change caused by humans is already affecting our lives and livelihoods - with extreme storms, unusual floods and droughts, intense heat waves, rising seas and many changes in biological systems - as climate scientists have projected." Today, a large body of evidence has been collected to support the broad scientific understanding that global climate warming, as evident these last few decades, is unprecedented for the past 1000 years - and this change is due to human activities. This conclusion is based on decades of rigorous research by thousands of scientists and endorsed by all of the world''s major national science academies . Although uncertainties remain, they concern issues like the rate of melting of major ice sheets rather than the broader topic of whether the climate is changing. This is from an article in the Politico, 'The science behind climate science,' by four leading climate scientists ... | 15th July 2010 |
| American Petroleum Institute's Revisionist History on Climate Change Position API Energy Taxes. png The American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for the oil and natural gas industry, is trying to re- write history by claiming that it has remained "neutral" about U. S. climate legislation. Nothing could be further from the truth, actually. API orchestrated the entire "Energy Citizens" astroturf campaign last year precisely to fight against climate legislation. Greenpeace USA obtained an internal memo[ PDF] from the desk of API president Jack Gerard detailing polluting interests' plans to launch the nationwide astroturf campaign attacking climate legislation as "tax increases on our industry." The API memo requested API''s member companies to recruit employees, retirees, vendors and contractors to attend the "Energy Citizen" rallies in key Congressional districts nationwide during the August recess last year, no doubt hoping to be confused with a genuine grassroots uprising, much like the tea parties. | 15th July 2010 |
| Senate Eyes Bush Plan on CO2 Senate leaders desperate for a climate bill close in on the Bush plan of a decade ago. | 15th July 2010 |
| Amazon storm killed half a billion trees: study RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A powerful storm destroyed about half a billion trees in the Amazon in 2005, according to a study on Tuesday that shows how the world''s forests may be vulnerable to more violent weather caused by climate change. | 15th July 2010 |
| EU agrees on carbon permit auction rules from 2013 LONDON (Reuters) - European Union governments on Wednesday unanimously agreed detailed rules for auctioning carbon permits in the third phase of the bloc''s Emissions Trading Scheme from 2013, the EU executive said in a statement. | 15th July 2010 |
| Scientists create improved CO2-absorbing crystals HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chemists in South Korea and the United States have improved the design of a type of artificial crystal, doubling the amount of carbon- dioxide they can absorb and store. | 15th July 2010 |
| Big freeze changes minds on global warming A THIRD of Scots have changed their views on climate change due to the winter big freeze and the "climategate" scandal, a study for The Scotsman has revealed. | 15th July 2010 |
| Information levels Rasmus' recent post on the greenhouse effect raised some interesting points concerning the technical level at which posts or other public communications should be written. This was a relatively technical article as these things go, eschewing the very basic 'the greenhouse effect is like a blanket' but not really approaching the level of a technical paper on the subject (no line- by- line calculations for instance). Nonetheless, there were complaints that was too much to be absorbed by the lay public, counter- arguments that making it too simple was patronising, as well as complaints that the discussions were not technical enough (for instance in explaining stratospheric cooling). | 15th July 2010 |
| Climate scientists respond to 'climategate' report It''s time to abandon the black- and- white fiction that human- induced climate change is fact or conspiracy, they say | 15th July 2010 |
| Law of hurricane power discovered The intensity of hurricanes follows a simple mathematical law " a finding that could help us predict how they will respond to climate change | 15th July 2010 |
| Whither the weak in the post-peak oil world? It is often said that the test of any civilization is how it treats its weakest members. Those who are compromised physically, mentally or emotionally create a sort of live- action Rorschach test. Do the weak among us evoke our compassion or our scorn? If we are among the lucky ones who have our full faculties, our reaction to the weak says more about our view of the disfigured, stricken and defeated parts of our own psyche--the parts which make us feel most vulnerable and ashamed--than it does about the weak among us. Even if we feel compassion for those less fortunate, we are rarely called upon to find the limits of that compassion. | 15th July 2010 |
| 'Moral duty' to tackle climate change A gathering of international parliamentarians has been informed that 'climate change is a reality'. | 15th July 2010 |
| New Weather Patterns Threaten U.S. Breadbasket Climate change is expected to disrupt agriculture in the U. S. Midwest, with high carbon dioxide promoting crop growth but stronger storms, drought, floods and migrating yields dampening yields. | 15th July 2010 |
| Google climate map offers a glimpse of a 4C world | Adam Vaughan Interactive tool layering climate data over Google Earth maps shows the impact of an average global temperature rise of 4CThink it''s hot this summer? Wait until you see Google''s simulation of a world with an average global temperature rise of 4C. Using a map that was first launched by the former Labour administration in October 2009, the coalition government has taken temperature data from the Met Office Hadley Centre and other climate research centres and imposed it on to a Google Earth layer. It''s a timely arrival, with warnings this month that current international carbon pledges will lead to a rise of nearly 4C and the Muir Russell report censuring some climate scientists for not being more open with their data (but exonerating them of manipulating the scientific evidence).Unlike a similar tool using IPCC data that was launched by Google in the run- up to the Copenhagen ... | 15th July 2010 |
| Lloyd's adds its voice to dire 'peak oil' warnings Business underestimating catastrophic consequences of declining oil, says Lloyd''s of London/ ISS report. One of the City''s most respected institutions has warned of "catastrophic consequences" for businesses that fail to prepare for a world of increasing oil scarcity and a lower carbon economy. The Lloyd''s insurance market and the highly regarded Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS, known as Chatham House) says Britain needs to be ready for "peak oil" and disrupted energy supplies at a time of soaring fuel demand in China and India, constraints on production caused by the BP oil spill and political moves to cut CO2 to halt global warming."Companies which are able to take advantage of this new energy reality will increase both their resilience and competitiveness. | 15th July 2010 |
Climate scientist: 'Positive carbon-climate feedback is still very likely' - and even without 'a runaway feedback,' warming will be 'substantial and critical' - Plus a review of recent research on amplifying feedbacks ![[essential]](images/redDot.gif) As the United States, like much of the rest of the world, bakes in record, killer heat, climate scientists continue to refine our understanding of the dire future of global warming in the years to come. The United Nations has named the 831 scientists who will author the fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, to be published in 2013 with new model runs and observations of the ongoing destruction of our habitable environment. They do this work despite the endless assault from the fossil- fueled right wing, weathering death threats and media and politicians who ignore, downplay, distort, or lie about the science. | 9th July 2010 |
NSIDC: In June, Arctic sea ice saw lowest extent and fastest rate of decline in the satellite record  This year will almost certainly set the record for lowest Arctic ice volume ever recorded (see 'When things were rotten'). But whether it will set the less important - but more visible - record for sea ice extent is less certain. You can see how close 2010 is to 2007 now. On the one hand, the National Snow and Ice Data Center just issued their July report, which notes, 'June saw the return of the Arctic dipole anomaly, an atmospheric pressure pattern that contributed to the record sea ice loss in 2007.' On the other hand, they point out ... | 9th July 2010 |
| Majority of judges hearing drilling moratorium appeal attended oil-funded junkets Last month, Judge Martin Feldman, a federal trial judge in Louisiana, handed down a poorly- reasoned opinion lifting the Obama Administration''s temportary moratorium on new oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Feldman owned stock in Exxon and other drilling companies. Today in New Orleans, a three- judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will consider whether to stay Feldman''s decision. According to a new report by the Alliance for Justice, however, it is unlikely that these Fifth Circuit judges will approach the case without the perception of bias. TP has the story in this cross- post. | 9th July 2010 |
| Hot Weather in a Warming Climate A look at how more hot extremes might, or might not, spur climate and energy action. | 9th July 2010 |
| Was the East Anglia Incident a Crime? Nearly eight months after thousands of e- mail messages and files of climate scientists were scattered around the Web, authorities have still not labeled the release a crime. | 9th July 2010 |
| Oil Fouling the Niger Delta Dwarfs the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico The swiftly unfolding environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico has riveted the world''s attention in recent weeks, but as the blog Aid. Data points out, the amount of oil spilled in the Niger Delta over five decades far exceeds the disaster in the Gulf, with even more devastating environmental consequences. Citing statistics from the United Nations Development Program, Aid. Data says estimates of oil spilled in the Niger Delta since 1960 range from 5.75 million to 10 million barrels, roughly triple the amount of oil that has Click to enlarge. UNDPOIL SPILLED: Nigeria spill (1960-present) and the 2010 BP spill gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from the blown- out Deepwater Horizon rig. | 9th July 2010 |
| Interview: A Scientist Foretells the End For Hudson Bay's Struggling Polar Bears No polar bears have been more closely studied than Canada''s western Hudson Bay population. Biologists have compiled an impressive store of data on everything from the weight of females at denning, the decreasing body mass of bears of all sexes, the increasing length of time the bears spend annually on the shores of Hudson Bay, and the decline of sea ice in the bay itself. Now, polar bear biologist Andrew E. Derocher and colleagues from the University of Alberta have marshaled that data to forecast how long it will be before western Hudson Bay''s polar bears disappear. The answer is sobering ... | 9th July 2010 |
EU gives power stations until 2020 to meet emissions rules  Fossil- fuel power stations will have until June 2020 to comply with the next phase of EU pollution rules, under the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) passed by the European Parliament yesterday. | 9th July 2010 |
| Germany targets switch to 100% renewables for its electricity by 2050 Germany already leads the world on renewable energy and could become first G20 country to kick the fossil- fuel habit Germany could derive all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050 and become the world''s first major industrial nation to kick the fossil- fuel habit, the country''s Federal Environment Agency said today. The country already gets 16% of its electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources " three times' higher than the level it had achieved 15 years ago."A complete conversion to renewable energy by 2050 is possible from a technical and ecological point of view," said Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Federal Environment Agency."It''s a very realistic target based on technology that already exists " it''s not a pie- in- the- sky prediction," he said. Thanks to its Renewable Energy Act, Germany is the world leader in photovoltaics ... | 9th July 2010 |
| No more BPs: we must turn our deserts into solar power | Ulrich Beck The Deepwater Horizon disaster should make us look to the sun, and start a revolution in how we meet our energy needs. Why hasn' t the Deepwater Horizon spill, one of the worst ecological disasters in US history, led to a storming of the Bastille of Big Oil? Why aren' t the most urgent problems of our time " environmental crises and climate change " being confronted with the same energy, idealism and optimism as past tragedies of poverty, tyranny and war? The current state of the oil industry is reminiscent of the ancien regime on the eve of the revolution. The Gulf of Mexico disaster has many faces. | 9th July 2010 |
| Global emissions targets will lead to 4C temperature rise, say studies Studies predict major extinctions and collapse of Greenland ice sheet with temperatures rising well above UN targets. The world is heading for an average temperature rise of nearly 4C (7F), according to analysis of national pledges from around the globe. Such a rise would bring a high risk of major extinctions, threats to food supplies and the near- total collapse of the huge Greenland ice sheet. More than 100 heads of state agreed in Copenhagen last December to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C-2C (2.7-3.6F) above the long- term average before the industrial revolution, which kickstarted a massive global increase in the greenhouse gases blamed for warming the planet and triggering climate change. But six months on, a major international effort to monitor the emissions reductions targets of more than 60 countries, including all the major economies, the Climate Interactive Scoreboard, ... | 9th July 2010 |
| The climate bill endgame by David Goldstein. Cross- posted from the NRDC Switchboard blog. The most important component of an effective climate bill- one that helps the economy recover and assures that greenhouse gas emissions will decline rapidly over the decades to come- is setting a cap on emissions. Opponents of a cap misunderstand how and why the cap will work, and their stated reasons for opposition reflect this misunderstanding. Typical of these self- described conservative arguments is made by Steve Everley at American Solutions. Everley tries to paint efforts to price carbon through a cap broadly as socialism, and narrowly as a tax. | 9th July 2010 |
| George Monbiot : Bunkum Masquerading As Insight ? I was in telephone conversation with somebody in the Climate Change policy arena in the last two weeks (names will remain unnamed for obvious reasons), and they complained to me about George Monbiot''s position on Climategate. I could sense incandescent rage, even at the other end of the phone line, as the person expressed extreme displeasure with George Monbiot, and asserted that he was a 'nasty little man'. I don' t agree with that summary. For a start, George Monbiot is probably taller than the average Briton, so the epithet is literally inaccurate. I don' t even agree that George Monbiot is 'little' in terms of influential, public figures, either. | 9th July 2010 |
| Paris looks for power from turbines beneath the Seine River currents could be harnessed at four bridges across the capital. The river Seine, the historical "sacred river" running through Paris, inspired Monet, Matisse and even the British painter Turner, who sat on its banks to capture the scenery. Now the landscape is to undergo a subtle change, with a plan to install eight turbines underneath the city''s celebrated bridges to raise energy from river currents. Paris city hall is to launch an appeal this week for power companies to come up with suitable projects to install the turbines, or hydroliennes."After a study by our urban ecology service and the French waterways, four potential sites have already been identified," Denis Baupin, the deputy mayor, told Le Parisien newspaper. | 5th July 2010 |
| American Public turns against offshore drilling Ruy Teixeira, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, shows us how the oil spill has been shifting public opinion on offshore drilling, little by little, in this repost. The gulf oil spill disaster is starting to take a serious toll on public support for offshore drilling. Consider these data from a new Pew Research Center poll. Back in February of this year, 63 percent of the public supported more offshore drilling as a policy response to address our energy needs, compared to 31 percent who were opposed. Today a majority of the public-52 percent- opposes offshore drilling, and support has fallen to 44 percent. | 5th July 2010 |
| When things were rotten: Arctic sees record sea ice shrinkage, headed toward record low volume - On a streetcar named denial, Watts and Goddard assert: "Arctic Basin ice generally looks healthier than 20 years ago." Must- see video here for ice junkies, background here: 'Arctic Ocean is full of rotten ice.' 'Anomalies for each day are calculated relative to the average over the 1979 -2009 period for that day to remove the annual cycle.' [And yes, "anomaly" is a poor word choice for a long- term trend driven by human emissions.] Back in mid- May, I argued the Arctic is poised to see record low sea ice volume this year. Since then, volume has plummeted some 3000 km3 (relative to its recent historical average) to '19,000 km3, the lowest May volume over the 1979"2010 period, 42% below the 1979 maximum and 32% below the 1979"2009 May average,' according to the Polar Science Center, which has the best Arctic ice volume model around. | 5th July 2010 |
| Climate Union : Sharing Principles Image Credit : Gilbert & George, 'Nettle Dance', White Cube I' m in the Climate Union. Are You ? Soon we could all be, if the expansionist plans of a group of social campaigners come to fruition. Taking in the unions, faith communities and the usual rag- tag bunch of issues activists, the Climate Union aims to establish itself as a political force for Low Carbon. First of all, however, it has to tackle the uneasy and prickly problem of the exact name of the movement, and the principles under which it will operate. The flag has been flown ... | 5th July 2010 |
| 'We Got that Deleted': Canada's Oil Sands Lobby Twisting Washington's Arm - in News US politicians bend to foreign- backed pressure to soften climate bill. | 5th July 2010 |
| 'Carbon storage' faces leak dilemma - study Dreams of braking global warming by storing carbon emissions from power plants could be undermined by the risk of leakage, according to a study published on Sunday. | 5th July 2010 |
Hot nights to bite Basmati  New Delhi, June 28 : Warmer nights may spoil the aroma of basmati and cause the rice to become sticky when cooked, scientists have warned after a study of how climate change may affect the quality of rice. | 5th July 2010 |
| Scientists 'expect climate tipping point' by 2200 The global climate is more than likely to slip into an unpredictable state with unknown consequences for human societies if carbon dioxide emissions continue on their present course, a survey of leading climate scientists has found. | 5th July 2010 |
| The End of Oil, and Government The unsustainable U. S. economy and coast- to- coast consumer society that uses more oil than any other nation will keep up its energy gluttony until supplies give out. Because oil is the most critical part of our energy mix, and it supplies critical materials and chemicals besides fuels, a sudden, crippling oil shortage can paralyze most of the work, commerce and law enforcement going on in this country. | 5th July 2010 |
| Byrd's death brings new problems for climate advocates - The Hill - blog Telegraph. co. uk. Byrd''s death brings new problems for climate advocates. The Hill (blog)'Senator Byrd led efforts among coal state senators to devise global warming legislation that would smooth the transition for workers in their states,' said ...Byrd''s death could delay financial reform vote. Los Angeles Timesall 4,387 | 5th July 2010 |
| UK 'needs new climate policies' The emissions- lowering recession is masking failures on carbon- cutting, and new policies are needed, say advisors. | 5th July 2010 |
| Harbour seals 'pupping earlier' Harbour seals give birth to pups 25 days earlier than 35 years ago as a result of changes to marine ecosystems, a study shows. | 5th July 2010 |
| Earth Watch Petrolheads aim to steer world round greener corner | 5th July 2010 |
| How hot is it? So hot that 8 countries in Africa and Asia set all-time high temperature records - And the Tea Party postponed their Las Vegas convention Before getting to the irony of the anti- science Tea Partiers canceling their big convention because the weather is too hot, let''s look at some of the staggering extreme weather events around the globe. In China, 'The Southern Daily said over 600 millimetres (24 inches) of rain fell in Guangdong''s Huilai county over a six- hour period on Friday, a 500-year record.' That''s two feet of rain in 6 hours! As Dr. Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told me earlier this month: There is a systematic influence on all of these weather events now- a-days because of the fact that there is this extra water vapor lurking around in the atmosphere than there used to be say 30 years ago. | 5th July 2010 |
| Can the world run on renewables, nuclear energy and geo-sequestration? The negative case Editor's note: This article is a summary of a new paper published in Energy Policy, available at sciencedirect. com [link]. For a detailed discussion of renewable energy's limits see Renewable energy - Cannot sustain an energy - intensive society [link]. The author told Culture Change, "Central in the delusion system moving us to the brink is the unquestioned faith that renewables can preserve affluence and the growth society; it is extremely difficult to get anyone to think about this." | 5th July 2010 |
| Global CO2 Trends Show Scope of Climate Challenge Energy trends in developing countries are causing per- capita emissions there to relentlessly rise even as the rich world gets cleaner. | 5th July 2010 |
| The IPCC underestimated Amazon threat Challenging climate sceptics is good sport but we' re in danger of forgetting the deadly serious matter at hand. Well this becomes more entertaining by the moment. Those who staked so much on the "Amazongate" story, only to see it turn round and bite them, are now digging a hole so deep that they will soon be able to witness a possible climate change scenario at first hand, as they emerge, shovels in hand, in the middle of the Great Victoria Desert. Here''s the story so far. In January the rightwing blogger Richard North claimed that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had "grossly exaggerated the effects of global warming on the Amazon rain forest". | 5th July 2010 |
| Blimps could replace aircraft in freight transport, say scientists Helium- powered ships could be carrying freight " and even passengers " in as little as a decade''s time. Fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers and other foreign luxuries could be part of a global revolution by carrying cargo around the world in airships instead of planes, one of the UK''s leading scientists has predicted. The government''s former chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir David King, now director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at the University of Oxford, told a conference that massive helium balloons " or blimps " would replace aircraft as a key part of the global trade network as a way of cutting global warming emissions. Despite languishing in sci- fi B- movies for most of the last 70 years, King said several major air and defence companies, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin, were working on designs, and the US defence department had recently made a large grant ... [...been hearing this one since I was a little kiddie...] | 5th July 2010 |
| Could the plan for a Green Investment Bank kick-start a low-carbon UK? | Bryony Worthington Government will cut nine existing green business quangos to fund the Green Investment Bank. Swapping nine existing quangos and funds for a shiny new Green Investment Bank would fit snugly into the government''s desire to cut back on public spending and boost low- carbon investment flows, and now the chancellor, George Osborne, has some cover for doing so. The independent Wigley report (pdf) published yesterday recommends exactly that and was commissioned by the Tories themselves while in opposition to add weight to what otherwise was a great- sounding but nebulous manifesto commitment. A review of existing quangos is well overdue. All governments like to announce new things and the number of bodies established under Labour to try to speed up the transition to a low- carbon economy was quite staggering. | 5th July 2010 |
| Barack Obama fails to rally support for energy bill Standoff suggests Senate would give up on climate change law that would result in far more limited proposals Barack Obama''s hopes of leveraging public anger at the Gulf oil spill into political support for his clean energy agenda fell flat today after he failed to rally a group of Democratic and Republican senators around broad energy and climate change law. The standoff suggests the Senate would formally give up on climate change law, and recast energy reform as a Gulf oil spill response, that would roll in far more limited proposals such as a green investment bank, or a measure to limit greenhouse gas emissions that would apply only to electricity companies. Such a move would come as a personal rebuff to Obama who has put energy and climate change at the top of his agenda, and who called on the 23 senators at the White House meeting to establish ... | 5th July 2010 |
| How Goldman Sachs gambled on starving the world's poor - and won By now, you probably think your opinion of Goldman Sachs and its swarm of Wall Street allies has rock- bottomed at raw loathing. You' re wrong. There''s more. It turns out the most destructive of all their recent acts has barely been discussed at all. Here''s the rest. This is the story of how some of the richest people in the world - Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more - have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world, just so they could make a fatter profit. It starts with an apparent mystery. At the end of 2006, food prices across the world started to rise, suddenly and stratospherically. | 5th July 2010 |
| Scrubbing CO2 from atmosphere could be a long-term commitment With carbon dioxide in the atmosphere approaching alarming levels, even halting emissions altogether may not be enough to avert catastrophic climate change. Could scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air be a viable solution? A new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution suggests that while removing excess carbon dioxide would cool the planet, complexities of the carbon cycle would limit the effectiveness of a one- time effort. To keep carbon dioxide at low levels would require a long- term commitment spanning decades or even centuries. | 5th July 2010 |
| Indonesia's last glacier will melt within years (AP) -- Lonnie Thompson spent years preparing for his expedition to the remote, mist- shrouded mountains of eastern Indonesia, hoping to chronicle the affect of global warming on the last remaining glacier in the Pacific. He''s worried he got there too late. | 5th July 2010 |
| Warmer ecosystems could absorb less atmospheric carbon dioxide (Phys. Org. com) -- Research by scientists at Queen Mary, University of London has found that a predicted rise in global temperature of 4°C by 2100 could lead to a 13% reduction in ecosystems' ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. | 5th July 2010 |
| Arctic climate may be more sensitive to warming than thought, says new study A new study shows the Arctic climate system may be more sensitive to greenhouse warming than previously thought, and that current levels of Earth''s atmospheric carbon dioxide may be high enough to bring about significant, irreversible shifts in Arctic ecosystems. | 5th July 2010 |
| Obama commits nearly $2 billion to solar companies WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, under pressure to spur job growth, said on Saturday two solar energy companies will get nearly $2 billion in U. S. loan guarantees to create as many as 5,000 green jobs. | 5th July 2010 |
| Russia floats barge for waterborne nuclear plant ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday took a big step toward the controversial creation of the world''s first floating nuclear power station, putting a barge that will house the plant into the water. | 5th July 2010 |
| Australian Greens propose A$23/ton carbon tax SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia''s influential Greens party has written to new Prime Minister Julia Gillard calling for a A$23 a ton carbon tax after upcoming elections, allowing her time to gain support for a carbon trading scheme. | 5th July 2010 |
| Biofuel Production from Algae Years from Commercialization, U.S. Says Biofuels produced from algae hold 'significant promise' as an alternative to polluting petroleum- based fuels, but the technology will require years of development before it is ready to be deployed at a large- scale, commercial level, according to a U. S. Department of Energy report. The 'National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap' identifies the state of the technology and the challenges facing researchers, engineers, and policymakers in the advancement of algal biofuels. 'Many years of both basic and applied science and engineering will likely be needed to achieve affordable, scalable, and sustainable CCMPThe microalgae Botryococcus algal- based fuels,' the report says. | 5th July 2010 |
| Emission cuts threatened by economic recovery Britain is not on course to meet its climate change targets for reducing carbon emissions, the Government is bluntly warned today. | 5th July 2010 |
| Moynihan, as Nixon aide, warned of global warming YORBA LINDA, Calif. " Documents released Friday by the Nixon Presidential Library show members of President Richard Nixon''s inner circle discussing the possibilities of global warming more than 30 years ago. Adviser Daniel Patrick Moynihan, notable as a Democrat in the administration, urged the administration to initiate a worldwide system of monitoring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, decades before the issue of global warming came to the public''s attention. There is widespread agreement that carbon dioxide content will rise 25 percent by 2000, Moynihan wrote in a September 1969 memo. "This could increase the average temperature near the earth''s surface by 7 degrees Fahrenheit," he wrote. | 5th July 2010 |
| The Declaration of Interdependence When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature''s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. | 5th July 2010 |
| Nuclear power is more unpopular than we're led to believe contribution by Leo New polling sheds some light both on where the public stand in terms of different power options, and on the impact of arguments that make nuclear seem more attractive. The polls are useful for understanding public attitudes towards nuclear power in two ways: they indicate how people regard nuclear at the moment, and they also help show the impact of arguments for nuclear power. At a basic level, nuclear power is currently pretty much the least popular form of power generation in the UK. 1. When asked favourability towards different sources, it comes in at the bottom of the pile " around the same place as both coal and gas. | 5th July 2010 |
| A crisis of capitalism - in simple animation The left should be in the ascendancy following a crisis of capitalism, but it is not. The right is leading for a number of reasons but just one of the problems for the left is that the narratives and explanations it offers tend to be more complicated than those offered by the right. When David Cameron describes the UK''s debt as an overdraft it doesn' t matter that he''s wrong, it is easy to understand. When a Government''s finances are compared to a households it is intelligible to all whereas thinking about the public sector deficit as a mirror image of a private sector surplus seems counter- intuitive. | 5th July 2010 |
| It's not just BP's oil in the Gulf that threatens world's oceans A sobering new report warns that the oceans face a "fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation" not seen in millions of years as greenhouse gases and climate change already have affected temperature, acidity, sea and oxygen levels, the food chain and possibly major currents that could alter global weather. The report, in Science magazine, brings together dozens of studies that collectively paint a dismal picture of deteriorating ocean health. | 5th July 2010 |
| The complexity gurus and our margins of safety Human societies have long relied on specialists to help in complex matters involving the natural and human- built worlds. Ptolemaic astronomers used what would seem to us moderns as a needlessly complex Earth- centered system to explain the heavens and predict celestial events. And yet, they were amazingly accurate. Complex societies of the past have employed specialists in war, statecraft, engineering, agriculture, shipbuilding, and a variety of other tasks that would be difficult to accomplish without in- depth knowledge. And, yet these specialists typically lived not within societies that were managed along completely rational principles. Instead, the role of religion was far more prominent that it is today and tightly interwoven with the workings of the state. | 5th July 2010 |
| China to host climate talks before Mexico meeting: report BEIJING (Reuters) - China will host an extra round of international negotiations in October aimed at fostering agreement over a new climate treaty, the United Nations' top environment official said in remarks published on Monday. | 5th July 2010 |
| The heat age The past 12 months have been the hottest since measurements began, in keeping with trends that have, for the past 35 years, shown global warming unfolding as predicted by science. | 5th July 2010 |
| Nitrogen Pollution Alters Global Change Scenarios From The Ground Up Scientists find excess nitrogen favors plants that respond poorly to rising CO2As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, so does the pressure on the plant kingdom. The hope among policymakers, scientists and concerned citizens is that plants will absorb some of the extra CO2 and mitigate the impacts of climate change. For a few decades now, researchers have hypothesized about one major ... | 5th July 2010 |
| CSIRO in bed with big coal Questions are being raised about the closeness of BHP Billiton and the CSIRO under its chief executive, Megan Clark. A former technology vice- president at BHP, Clark was appointed in 2008 and is regarded as a straight shooter. | 5th July 2010 |
| Report: Oceans' deteriorating health nearing 'irreversible' WASHINGTON A sobering new report warns that the oceans face a "fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation" not seen in millions of years as greenhouse gases and climate change already have affected temperature, acidity, sea and oxygen levels, the food chain and possibly major currents that could alter global weather. | 5th July 2010 |
| Energy Needs of China's Consumers Swamping Efficiency Gains China''s fast- growing consumer class is swamping the government''s efforts to cut energy waste. | 5th July 2010 |
| US climate scientists receive hate mail barrage in wake of UEA scandal Vitriolic campaign targets American scientists following leak of climate unit emails. Climate scientists in the US say police inaction has left them defenceless by in the face of a torrent of death threats and hate mail, leaving them fearing for their lives and one to contemplate arming himself with a handgun. The scientists say the threats have increased since the furore over leaked emails from the University of East Anglia began last November, and a sample of the hate mail sent in recent months and seen by the Guardian reveals the scale and vitriolic tone of the abuse. The scientists revealed they have been told to "go gargle razor blades" and have been described as "Nazi climate murderers". | 5th July 2010 |
| What We Have Here Is A Failure To Regulate Video Credit : Gasland the Movie The ever- vigilant and fair Rowena Mason at the Daily Telegraph dives deep into the Shale Gas (Gas Shale) story with a piece featuring a trailer for the new Gasland film :- [link] finance/ rowenamason/100006602/shale- gas- pollution- fears- leave- americans- with- another- energy- headache/ 'Shale gas pollution fears leave Americans with another energy headache : By Rowena Mason Energy Last updated: June 23rd, 2010 : Still politically scorched from BP''s giant Gulf of Mexico spill, it couldn' t be a worse time for America''s oil giants to find themselves roasting in another environmental firestorm. | 5th July 2010 |
| Don't Believe The Heat ? Don' t believe that the globe is warming up ? Not even after scanning the available sources ? Well, that''s probably down to the failure of your public and private Media, who are, for the most part, seemingly institutionally incapable of telling the full unexpurgated facts :- [link]?p=5505 '19 June 2010 : Contrary to the impression you might have gained from the media, the global climate is NOT cooling. In fact, the last twelve months, June 2009 " May 2010, has been the hottest June- May period on record, in both the 31-year satellite record of lower atmosphere global temperature and the 131-year surface global temperature record. | 5th July 2010 |
| Obama admin loses bid to keep oil drilling ban WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration suffered a setback on Thursday in its efforts to keep its six- month ban on new deepwater drilling after the worst oil spill in U. S. history. See also: UPDATE: Judge who ruled against moratorium owned stock in Exxon, other drilling companies |
27th June 2010 |
| Methane in Gulf "astonishingly high": U.S. scientist CHICAGO (Reuters) - As much as 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, enough to potentially deplete oxygen and create a dead zone, U. S. scientists said on Tuesday. |
27th June 2010 |
| Money in the Greenhouse Oil companies succeed in pushing for a California ballot initiative that would suspend the state's climate law. |
27th June 2010 |
| Maurice Strong on climate 'conspiracy', Bilberberg and population control Read the full transcript of former UNEP boss and environmentalist Maurice Strong's interview with Leo Hickman Post your comments on the news story. What's your reaction to how your name has been used and abused over the years? I've got used to criticisms and, naturally, I try to make sure I don' t listen to the more extreme ones because most of the people who have taken their rightwing extremist view of my life are people that I' ve never met. Most of my supporters are people who actually know me. I just continue to do the best I can and I don' t bother to try and respond to every little bit because the best response is just to keep on doing what you think is right. Is this a phenomenon that has happened over the past decade or so during the internet age, or have you attracted criticism all your career stretching ... |
27th June 2010 |
| Frank Fenner sees no hope for humans FRANK Fenner doesn' t engage in the skirmishes of the climate wars. To him, the evidence of global warming is in. Our fate is sealed. |
27th June 2010 |
| All talk, no summit action on the end to fossil-fuel subsidies Once again how many times has it been? Canadas position on climate change has proved to be an international embarrassment. |
27th June 2010 |
| Obama mking BP pay is good government, and that's why Republicans and the corporate media are freaking out Obama's hardline move on BP is exactly what government is supposed to do; whatever it can, within the limits of the law, to protect its citizens' interests. |
27th June 2010 |
| We are all trapped in a global oil slick now Has our crude awakening begun, at last? It's not just the pelicans of Louisiana that are flapping and flailing in an oil slick " it's all of us. We live permanently doused in petrol. Every time we move further than our feet can carry us, or eat food we didn' t grow, or go shopping, we burn more barrels. Petrol pours off each of us like an invisible sweat. The twentieth century was propelled into the stratosphere on a great gushing geyser of oil, and in the adrenaline- frenzy, nobody wanted to ask where it was coming from, or what it would cost us in the end. |
27th June 2010 |
| Scientific expertise lacking among 'doubters' of climate change, says Stanford-led analysis The small number of scientists who are unconvinced that human beings have contributed significantly to climate change have far less expertise and prominence in climate research compared with scientists who are convinced, according to a study led by Stanford researchers. |
27th June 2010 |
| The 'Energy-Only Bill' Mirage - Center For American Progress Center For American Progress. The 'Energy- Only Bill' Mirage. Center For American Progress. Richard Lugar (R- IN) supports an energy- only bill even though he voted for previous global warming bills in 2003 and 2005-at a time when the science was ...Reid: Climate bill must have 'broad bipartisan support' or he won' t bring it ...Washington Post (blog) Where is Barbara? Fox and Hounds Daily (blog) all 84 |
27th June 2010 |
| Can Europe import solar power from Africa? The race to harness the sun of the Sahara and Middle East deserts is one initiative in a far- ranging European energy consensus. There are probably easier ways to meet Europe's thirst for clean energy than importing it from vast solar farms in the Sahara. But it is very tempting. According to the European commission's Institute for Energy, it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle Eastern deserts (an area around the size of Wales) to meet all of Europe's energy needs. Several groups have come up with plans to harness the sun in Africa to make electricity, which could then be exported to Europe, or use it to turn desert into forests by using the power to desalinate sea water. |
27th June 2010 |
| Yet another major poll finds strong public support for global warming action, 'even if it means an increase in the cost of energy' The drumbeat of public support for comprehensive clean energy and global warming policies beats louder every day. The latest Wall Street Journal- NBC Poll found overwhelming support for comprehensive clean energy legislation that includes carbon pollution reductions. It also registered that cleaning up the BP oil disaster and energy reform is the number two priority of Americans. Finally, it registered another drop in support for the expansion of offshore oil drilling. CAP's Daniel J. Weiss has the details: The WSJ- NBC poll was conducted by respected pollsters Bill Mc. Inturff (R) and Peter Hart (D). Mc. Inturff was John Mc. Cain's presidential pollster in 2008. |
27th June 2010 |
| Climate change complicates plant diseases of the future Human- driven changes in the earth's atmospheric composition are likely to alter plant diseases of the future. Researchers predict carbon dioxide will reach levels double those of the preindustrial era by the year 2050, complicating agriculture's need to produce enough food for a rapidly growing population. |
27th June 2010 |
| "Extreme heat wave sets all-time high temperature records in Africa and Middle East" As NOAA reported early this month, globally it's the warmest May, spring, and Jan- May on record. Steve Scolnik of Capital Climate put together this U. S. chart: Total number of daily high and low temperature records set in the U. S., data from NOAA National Climatic Data Center, background image © Kevin Ambrose. Includes historical daily observations archived in NCDC's Cooperative Summary of the Day data set and preliminary reports from Cooperative Observers and First Order National Weather Service stations. All stations have a Period of Record of at least 30 years. It's been so hot in DC - 'The official Washington DC temperature of 99° at 2 pm today has already broken the heat record for June 24 set in 1894' - that even the Washington Post noticed. |
27th June 2010 |
| Arctic Freshwater Cycle Intensifies, Marks Warming The amount of fresh water flowing through the Arctic as snow or rainfall, in rivers and by evapotranspiration is rising in agreement with models of a warming climate, according to a major new study by climate scientists in the U. S., Norway and Finland who analyzed all available Arctic observations. |
27th June 2010 |
| Climate change is leaving us with extra space junk Dead satellites and rocket parts are taking longer to drop out of orbit, thanks to cooling of the upper atmosphere as the air beneath gets warmer |
27th June 2010 |
| Bookies Slash Price Of Temperature Hitting 100f - Casino Beacon Bookies Slash Price Of Temperature Hitting 100fCasino Beacon. Bookies William Hill have halved the price of temperatures topping 100f in 2010 from an original 10/1 to 5/1 as the heatwave kicks in and punters lump on. ... |
27th June 2010 |
| Peak readership for anti-science blogs? - Tobis: Denyosphere Jumps the Shark Comparative traffic rankings are always dicey - certainly Alexa.com is unreliable. Compete.com is considered perhaps the best available. Click on image for larger figure of ranking over 12 months, which shows the rise and fall of the anti- science crowd. Back on March 26, Watts wrote, 'Traffic has slowed from about half of what it was during the heady days of Climategate and Copenhagen in December, but I note that this is not unique to WUWT, as other climate blogs have also experienced similar drops since then' (see Hits charade: Watts. UpWith. That hypes itself with dubious webstats, while lowballing other blogs). | 27th June 2010 |
| In the Battle to Save Forests, Activists Target Corporations Large corporations, not small- scale farmers, are now the major forces behind the destruction of the world's tropical forests. From the Amazon to Madagascar, activists have been directing their actions at these companies - so far with limited success. BY RHETT BUTLER | 27th June 2010 |
| New Australian PM vows to revive carbon debate SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard moved to revive a stalled carbon trading scheme on Thursday, pledging more consultation with industry and voters to win support for an issue that has split the nation. | 27th June 2010 |
| A Louisiana Tea Party for More Oil Drilling Plenty of non- crazy folks in Louisiana want to keep the oil industry chugging along, but for Louisiana Tea Partiers, it's all about Obama. | 27th June 2010 |
| Four Possible BP-Style Extreme Energy Nightmares to Come The disaster in the Gulf is no anomaly. It's an arrow pointing toward future disasters. | 27th June 2010 |
| What's the carbon footprint of a bushfire? One season of Australian bushfires can cause as much CO2 as the annual emissions of 5 million Australians or 50 million Chinese people More carbon footprints: nuclear war, cycling a mile, more Understand more about carbon footprints. The carbon footprint of the 2009 Australian bushfires:165 million tonnes CO2eIf you were looking for the single most carbon- intensive thing you could do in your live, starting a bushfire would be a fairly good candidate. That one strike of a match could make your footprint many thousands of times greater than most people achieve over their lifetimes. The estimate given above is for the catastrophic "Black Saturday" bushfires in Australia last year. | 27th June 2010 |
| UK emission cuts 'not radical enough', airport protest trial told Climate scientist giving evidence for the Plane Stupid defence says 80% target will not prevent 'dangerous' climate change. Government plans to cut UK carbon emissions by 80% over the next 40 years are not radical enough to prevent "dangerous" climate change, a trial of nine climate protesters heard today. The climate scientist Dr Alice Bows, a specialist from the Tyndall centre for climate change research, also told a jury that the growth in aviation was a "big issue" because its emissions caused particular harm at higher altitude. Bows was giving evidence for the defence at the trial of nine members of the Plane Stupid protest group, who were facing breach of the peace and vandalism charges for occupying Aberdeen airport and disrupting flights in March last year. The jury at Aberdeen sheriff court heard yesterday that thevandalism charges against all nine accused " five men and four women " had been ... | 27th June 2010 |
| Are butterflies the silent harbingers of global warming? by Seth Shulman. Camille Parmesan studies the effects of global warming by chasing butterflies. Sounds fanciful, but it is anything but. Her careful field observations of butterfly populations have produced compelling evidence of how climate change has already affected our living planet. In several landmark studies, she has helped pave the way for a body of eye- opening research that has tracked changes in numerous populations of plants and animals. It all started back in the early 1990s, when Parmesan was a graduate student happily studying the diet of the Edith's checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha). She was drawn into the field by her love of nature and of the butterflies themselves. | 27th June 2010 |
| Canada's wheat crop woes PERSISTENT wet weather in Canada's grain belt will wipe millions of tonnes off the global wheat crop. | 27th June 2010 |
| Arizona wildfires continue to rage Authorities say an abandoned campfire is likely to have caused the largest of three wildfires burning in northern Arizona. | 27th June 2010 |
| Defense Experts Want More Explicit Climate Models SAN DIEGO -- While political leaders on Capitol Hill seek definitive answers about how quickly the world's climate will chang... | 27th June 2010 |
| Canada pays $400M for global climate projects, but lessens own targets The Harper government will invest $400 million in international aid to honour commitments made at the last global climate summit in Copenhagen. | 27th June 2010 |
| Economy Wide or Utilities Only In his speech to the nation last week, President Obama raised the prospect of energy legislation being delivered by the Congress in this session, building on the work of the House of Representatives in 2009. The President said: '. . . . . Last year, the House of Representatives acted on these principles by passing a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill " a bill that finally makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for America's businesses. . . . ' But most observers have commented that the 60 votes needed in the Senate to deliver an economy wide cap- and- trade approach are not there. | 27th June 2010 |
| Gloves off in California over greenhouse gas law SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California environmentalists opened fire on Wednesday on a measure approved for the state's November ballot that would roll back a landmark law regulating greenhouse gas emissions. | 27th June 2010 |
| Major Australia investors urge quick action on climate SYDNEY (Reuters) - A group of major investors on Friday urged Australia's new Prime Minister Julia Gillard to take swift action to fight climate change and cut carbon emissions blamed for heating up the planet. | 27th June 2010 |
| Barclays Bank, British Gas and RBS implicated in 'scandalous' carbon trading scheme British companies accused of profiting from emissions trading scheme while consumers foot the bill | 27th June 2010 |
| What do climate scientists think - and why does it matter? Attempts to portray the scientific community as fractured and in disagreement have prompted efforts to quantify the credibility of climate scientists, says Gavin Schmidt. Leo Hickman: Why don' t we trust climate scientists? There is a lot of discussion this week about a new paper in PNAS (Andregg et al, 2010) that tries to assess the credibility of scientists who have made public declarations about policy directions. This comes from a long tradition of papers (and drafts) where people have tried to assess the state of the 'scientific consensus' (Oreskes, Brown et al, Bray and von Storch, Doran and Zimmerman etc.). | 27th June 2010 |
| Showcase, don't shun, economics of climate at G20 " Dr. David Suzuki is a Canadian scientist, broadcaster, author, and co- founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Any views expressed here are his own. " For the past two years, the global economy has been at the top of peoples' minds. And so has the environment. Indeed, most people probably care about both. The fact is these two issues are inextricably linked. As we' ve seen after the economic meltdown, we tend to focus on them as if they are separate. On the heels of the U. N. Conference on Climate Change last December in Copenhagen, climate change remains a major concern and now often dominates meetings of international heads of state, including the G8 and G20 summits. See also: G8 leaders offer only hollow words on global warming - Globe and Mail | 27th June 2010 |
| Scientists question EPA estimates of greenhouse gas emissions The approach the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural anaerobic lagoons that treat manure contains errors and may underestimate methane emissions by up to 65%, according to scientists from the University of Missouri. | 27th June 2010 |
| Answer to what ended the last ice age may be blowing in the winds, paper says Scientists still puzzle over how Earth emerged from its last ice age, an event that ushered in a warmer climate and the birth of human civilization. In the geological blink of an eye, ice sheets in the northern hemisphere began to collapse and warming spread quickly to the south. Most scientists say that the trigger, at least initially, was an orbital shift that caused more sunlight to fall across Earth's northern half. But how did the south catch up so fast? | 27th June 2010 |
| Aggressive action to reduce soot emissions needed to meet climate change goals Without aggressive action to reduce soot emissions, the time table for carbon dioxide emission reductions may need to be significantly accelerated in order to achieve international climate policy goals such as those set forth in last December's Copenhagen Accord, according to "Assessing the climatic benefits of black carbon mitigation," a study published online June 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). | 27th June 2010 |
| Cape Wind sued for violating Endangered Species Act NANTUCKET, Mass. A renewable energy advocacy group from California and conservation groups from as far away as Texas have partnered with the Alliance to Save Nantucket Sound in a district court lawsuit against the federal agencies that approved the industrial Cape Wind energy factory in Nantucket Sound, an area sacred to the Wampanoag people. | 27th June 2010 |
| Polar bear overseer: few tools to stop melting ice Polar bear policy in America can be summed up succinctly: The iconic bears are threatened with extinction, and so far nothing much is being done. | 27th June 2010 |
| Where have all the bold ideas gone? - CBC.ca Telegraph. co. uk. Where have all the bold ideas gone? CBC. ca. Take global warming, for example. The policy debate on climate change is stuck on who is to blame and not how it is to be resolved without having producing ...G20 Leaders to Meet and Discuss Global Warming...but only a little bit. Natural Resources Defense Council (blog) Canada: Man charged with carrying explosives ahead of G-20 summit. NDTV. comall 4,228 | 27th June 2010 |
 Take your time |
23rd June 2010 |
| Environmentalist Bill McKibben: Were losing climate battle CUSTER -- Bill Mc. Kibben said he considered himself fortunate to be at the 21st annual Midwest Renewable Energy Fair. |
23rd June 2010 |
| Are we coming to an end of economic growth? Further to an earlier post on my blog, is there another similarity between now and the 1970s " that the causes of rapid economic growth in previous years are fading away? I mean, one reason why growth slowed in the 1970s was that a couple of the impetuses behind fast non- inflationary growth in the 50s and 60s " post- war rebuilding and the spread of some big technical advances " became weaker. Similarly, four possible forces behind economic growth since the mid-80s might also now be fading: 1. Credit liberalization in the 80s led to a rise in the ratio of consumer debt to incomes. |
23rd June 2010 |
| A grim outlook for emissions as climate talks limp forward Those who thought the failed Copenhagen climate talks last December were a diplomatic nadir, from which only recovery was possible, are in for a shock. Since then, efforts to refloat the talks have seen a lot of ballast thrown overboard - including most of the scientific underpinnings of a deal to protect the world from dangerous warming. If a deal is finally done, probably in South Africa at the end of 2011, it may prove a diplomatic success but a climatic catastrophe. read more |
23rd June 2010 |
| Leakegate: A retraction Back in February, we commented on the fact- free IPCC- related media frenzy in the UK which involved plentiful confusion, the making up of quotes and misrepresenting the facts. Well, a number of people have pursued the newspapers concerned and Simon Lewis at least filed a complaint (pdf) with the relevant press oversight body. In response, the Sunday Times (UK) has today retracted a story by Jonathan Leake on a supposed 'Amazongate' and published the following apology: The article 'UN climate panel shamed by bogus rainforest claim' (News, Jan 31) stated that the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report had included an 'unsubstantiated claim' that up to 40% of the Amazon rainforest could be sensitive to future changes in rainfall. |
23rd June 2010 |
| Ridge clue to Antarctic ice loss The discovery of an underwater ridge in Antarctica offers a clue to why ice flowing into the sea has accelerated, say researchers. |
23rd June 2010 |
| Rain impacts of warmth to persist Impacts of greenhouse warming on rainfall would persist long after temperatures went back to normal, a study suggests. |
23rd June 2010 |
| How to power the energy innovation lifecycle A new CAP report by Sean Pool presents the 'network lifecycle' approach to clean energy innovation. The paper shows how the innovation lifecycle of clean energy technology can be divided into five phases, each involving a different an evolving network of participants with its own challenges and policy needs. Freeing our economy from its dangerous addiction to fossil fuels and averting the calamitous risks of climate change will require a major technological transformation in the way we produce, transmit, and consume energy. Inventing, developing, building, and deploying these new technologies will require a new era of American technological innovation. The result will be new industries and jobs, along with more clean energy and less pollution. |
23rd June 2010 |
| Landrieu on BP Disaster: Oil's 'time has come and is moving past us, and the transition to clean renewable energy is one our country has to begin immediately.' In all the criticism of Obama''s too- weak energy speech last week, not enough attention was paid to a statement that oil- state Senator Mary Landrieu (D- LA) made. Here is the final paragraph : 'Finally, the President called on America to begin a transition to cleaner, renewable energy. As people all across our nation watch the oil pouring into the Gulf, they are asking 'isn' t there a better way?' The answer is yes, there is a better way, and we must begin to lay that foundation now. Oil has paid tremendous dividends to our country. |
23rd June 2010 |
| New air conditioning system has potential to slash energy usage by up to 90 percent A soothing solution to hot, humid days may be on its way, thanks to a melding of technologies in filters, coolers and drying agents. The U. S. Department of Energy''s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has invented a new air conditioning process with the potential of using 50 percent to 90 percent less energy than today''s top- of- the- line units. It uses membranes, evaporative cooling and liquid ... |
23rd June 2010 |
| What food price backlash? US pushes for 85pc ethanol While many around the world are railing against biofuels for pushing up food prices, United States Governors and General Motors are pushing for greater roll out of 85pc ethanol blends. |
23rd June 2010 |
| Climate change commitments "missing" in G8 Accountability Report - WWF International Climate change commitments "missing" in G8 Accountability Report. WWF International' If we don' t limit global warming to as far below two degrees as possible, all development ambitions will be in serious danger,' said Kim Carstensen, ...and more | 23rd June 2010 |
| Scenarios: Climate bill backers enter critical week WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With time running out for the U. S. Senate to debate complicated and controversial climate change legislation, key players will huddle this week to try to come up with a plan for passing an energy/ environment bill this year. | 23rd June 2010 |
| Oil firms challenge deepwater drilling ban NEW ORLEANS/ LAFITTE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Oil services companies went to court on Monday seeking to overturn President Barack Obama''s six- month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the worst oil spill in U. S. history. | 23rd June 2010 |
| The Debate Is Most Definitely Over There were some in two minds, some vehemently on one side of the argument or the other, but now, the debate is finally over : on the question of whether they have been reporting Climate Change science accurately, the mainstream media have shown themselves to be incapable :- [link]2010/06/21/pnas- study- climate- science- media- balance- deniers/ [link] news/ press_ release/ study- scientific- consensus- climate- change-411.html As of this second, the report from the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences is not yet available to the public. | 23rd June 2010 |
| Unpicking Kyoto - 2 Unpicking Kyoto Jo Abbess 20 June 2010 CONTINUED FROM PART 1 PART 2 Why Was Copenhagen Such A Washout ? The international community, in the form of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established the Kyoto Protocol back in 1997, a treaty that was ratified only as late as 2005 after compromises from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for Russia. Global Climate Change negotiations, even before the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 have been beset by recurring problems. The annual UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol Conference of the Parties (COP) 15, Meeting of the Parties (MOP) 5 at Copenhagen in Denmark in December 2009 suffered from the usual last- minute- ism, as key negotiators did not arrive until the second week, and leaders, who had expressed a commitment to participating, did not arrive until the last few days, whereupon they appeared to derail the ... | 23rd June 2010 |
| China's clean energy push - Evaluating the implications for American competitiveness Fresh from releasing 'Out of the Running?,' a report that compares clean energy investments in China, Germany, and Spain, senior staff including Kate Gordon and Julian Wong, from the Center for American Progress brought a select group of Senate staffers to visit China in April to meet with policymakers, academics, and companies to better understand China''s clean energy economic development strategy. The visit provided convincing evidence to those involved that China has made large- scale investments in clean energy manufacturing and infrastructure, and that these signal China''s clear desire to lead the world in clean energy technology production, deployment, and eventually innovation. | 23rd June 2010 |
| Climate credibility under review Most climate experts who publish papers on the topic support the idea of human- induced climate change, a study suggests. | 23rd June 2010 |
| Budget 2010: Green policies 'sidelined', campaigners say Green groups disappointed after chancellor reveals no further details on plans for a green investment bank or home energy- efficiency schemes. Green groups expressed disappointment and surprise today at the lack of environmental policies in George Osborne''s budget. Hopes that the emergency budget would shed light on plans for a green investment bank, renewable energy and financial incentives for individuals to make their homes more energy efficient were dashed in the chancellor''s speech. Plans to introduce a floor price for carbon pollution permits to provide stability for emissions trading, as already laid out in the coalition agreement, were reiterated with a pledge to consult, this autumn, on the reform of Labour''s climate change levy. No new details were forthcoming on the new green bank, which will be designed to help fund clean energy projects such as windfarms. | 23rd June 2010 |
| BP's Dumb Investors The companies now threatening to sue BP have only themselves to blame. | 23rd June 2010 |
| What's wrong with the sun? SUNSPOTS come and go, but recently they have mostly gone. For centuries, astronomers have recorded when these dark blemishes on the solar surface emerge, only for them to fade away again after a few days, weeks or months. Thanks to their efforts, we know that sunspot numbers ebb and flow in cycles lasting about 11 years. But for the past two years, the sunspots have mostly been missing. Their absence, the most prolonged for nearly a hundred years, has taken even seasoned sun watchers by surprise. "This is solar behaviour we haven' t seen in living memory," says David Hathaway, a physicist at NASA''s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. |
20th June 2010 |
| Five Thousand Gulf Oil Spills That''s the rate that people are releasing carbon to the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation today. I know, it''s apples and oranges; carbon in the form of oil is more immediately toxic to the environment than it is as CO2 (although CO2 may be more damaging on geologic time scales). But think of it - five thousand spills like in the Gulf of Mexico, all going at once, each releasing 40,000 barrels a day, every day for decades and centuries on end. We are burning a lot of carbon! |
20th June 2010 |
| Where Obama's climate leadership is really lacking If you ever want to know what the inside- the- beltway conventional wisdom is, look for the Politico''s screaming headline. 'Deadly silence on carbon caps,' is today''s tea- leaf reading article, which asserts that Obama 'may have put the dagger into his long- sought plans for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions by opening the door for alternatives.' Speeches, while important, aren' t daggers - and, in any case, conventional wisdom in the Politico and elsewhere around DC has been that a GHG cap has been dead for months. But Obama could easily have skipped the pivot to comprehensive energy and climate legislation, and, as I' ve noted, 'The talking points are better than the speech I would also add that 'cap- and- trade' is a desperately bad centerpiece for messaging - since it focuses entirely on process and not outcomes/ ... |
20th June 2010 |
| Coalition to announce support for new nuclear power Government will ease the way for extra plants but not provide subsidies, energy minister Charles Hendry to tell industry chiefs. Energy minister Charles Hendry will today set out the government''s support for new nuclear power, in the face of opposition from the Tories' coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats. Hendry will tell the Nuclear Industry Forum that there is a role for new nuclear plants, provided they do not require public subsidies. In one of the key differences between the two coalition parties, the Tories back a new generation of private sector- funded nuclear power stations while the Lib Dems have long opposed new nuclear build. The Tory junior minister, who works under Lib Dem energy secretary Chris Huhne, said conversations he has had with companies suggest they are willing to invest without being subsidised. But the government will take steps to remove "unnecessary" barriers to building new nuclear power stations. Government ... |
20th June 2010 |
| Bogus, Misdirected and Effective The Tea Party movement is steeped in misinformation and denial. But it has a lot to teach the left. |
20th June 2010 |
| Is the Telegraph censoring criticism of climate-change deniers? About ten days ago, Telegraph employee and blogger Tom Chivers wrote a blog post titled 'Viscount Monckton is an embarrassment to global warming sceptics everywhere'. In the blog post he wrote: Entertaining news of the week: high- profile global warming sceptic Viscount (Christopher) Monckton has been caught out in an embarrassing example of (if we' re charitable) utter scientific illiteracy, in one of the most magisterial scientific take- downs on record. He goes on to explain that Monckton giving a lecture at a university in Minnesota where he made a series of 'startling claims'. |
20th June 2010 |
| Obama Vows Clean Energy Push, Green Groups Want Details Despite the pleas of some conservative politicians that parallels should not be drawn between the oil spreading over the Gulf of Mexico and the need to transition out of a reliance on fossil fuels, U. S. President Barack Obama made it clear Tuesday night that he sees the race against the spreading oil as inherently connected to the race against a changing climate. |
20th June 2010 |
| Gulf oil spill: A hole in the world The Deepwater Horizon disaster is not just an industrial accident " it is a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself. In this special report from the Gulf coast, a leading author and activist shows how it lays bare the hubris at the heart of capitalism. Everyone gathered for the town hall meeting had been repeatedly instructed to show civility to the gentlemen from BP and the federal government. These fine folks had made time in their busy schedules to come to a high school gymnasium on a Tuesday night in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, one of many coastal communities where brown poison was slithering through the marshes, part of what has come to be described as the largest environmental disaster in US history."Speak to others the way you would want to be spoken to," the chair of the meeting pleaded one last time before opening the floor for questions. ... |
20th June 2010 |
| Oceans choking on CO2, face deadly changes: study SYDNEY (Reuters) - The world''s oceans are virtually choking on rising greenhouse gases, destroying marine ecosystems and breaking down the food chain -- irreversible changes that have not occurred for several million years, a new study says. |
20th June 2010 |
| Liberty Turbines In his speech to the nation this week, President Obama referred to the huge level of resource that the United States was able to muster as it turned its industrial capacity to the production of military equipment during World War II. The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that this challenge is too big and too difficult to meet. You see, the same thing was said about our ability to produce enough planes and tanks in World War II. One of the best examples of this transformation and a symbol of US wartime industrial output was the production of 'Liberty Ships'. |
20th June 2010 |
| Zero-Carbon Economy in UK Possible Within 20 Years, Report Says Time to say we will zerocarbonbritain2030 is a positive, realistic policy framework to eliminate emissions from fossil fuels within 20 years. zerocarbonbritain2030 provides political and economic solutions to the urgent challenges raised by the climate science, outlining how we can transform the UK into an efficient, clean, prosperous zero- carbon society. "The great transition to a zero- carbon Britain is not only the most pressing challenge of our time, it is also entirely possible. The solutions needed to create a low- carbon and high- wellbeing future for all exist, what has been missing to date, is the political will to implement them.' Dr Victoria Johnson, New Economics Foundation. |
20th June 2010 |
| Disaster is making US think again about cleaner energy The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is making Americans think more about a clean energy future " but not yet to the extent of having to pay for it, or to tackle climate change, one of the leading US thinkers on global warming policy said yesterday. See also: Obama signals need for new energy agenda |
20th June 2010 |
| EPA analysis: Senate energy bill would lower electric bills The energy and climate bill that Republicans call a light- switch tax would lower electricity bills, at least in its early years, the Environmental Protection Agency reported Tuesday. See also: EPA modeling shows American Power Act brings economic and climate benefits |
20th June 2010 |
| Can painting a mountain restore a glacier? Slowly but surely an extinct glacier in a remote corner of the Peruvian Andes is being returned to its former colour, not by falling snow or regenerated ice sheets, but by whitewash. |
20th June 2010 |
| Prices to rise by up to 40% over next decade Growing demand from emerging markets and for biofuel production will send prices soaring, according to the OECD and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. Food prices are set to rise as much as 40% over the coming decade amid growing demand from emerging markets and for biofuel production, according to a United Nations report today which warns of rising hunger and food insecurity. Farm commodity prices have fallen from their record peaks of two years ago but are set to pick up again and are unlikely to drop back to their average levels of the past decade, according to the annual joint report from Paris- based thinktank the OECD and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).The forecasts are for wheat and coarse grain prices over the next 10 years to be between 15% and 40% higher in real terms, once adjusted for inflation, than their average levels ... |
20th June 2010 |
| Commentary: President Of Change Unwilling To Tackle U.S. Oil Addiction U. S. President Barack Obama has taken the fight to BP. But it is time that he picks a fight with the American public. American energy consumption is at the root of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, but Obama preferred to sidestep the issue in his Tuesday speech. | 20th June 2010 |
| David King: No cause for climate despair There are ways around the impasse over a global emissions deal, says the UK''s former chief scientist | 20th June 2010 |
| Is it time to say goodbye cool world? International climate negotiators may be on the brink of abandoning emissions targets aimed at limiting warming to 2 °C | 20th June 2010 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: As Humans Advance, Andean Glaciers Recede QUITO, Jun 14 (Tierramérica) - The spectacular glacier Number 15 of Antisana, one of the Ecuadorean capitals' sources of potable water, lost at least 36 percent of its original mass in the last 50 years. | 20th June 2010 |
| New Wind Capacity Keeps Pace with Natural Gas in Europe, Group Says In 2010, for the third consecutive year, new wind power installations in the European Union will have roughly the same amount of electricity- generating capacity as newly built natural gas power plants, according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). About 10 gigawatts of new wind power capacity is expected to be added in 2010, which would boost total installed capacity to about 85 gigawatts, according to the trade organization. Natural gas remains the EU''s leading source of generating electricity, producing about 119 gigawatts in 2007, according to industry data. But while new natural gas power plants had twice the capacity of Danish wind turbines new wind projects as recently as four years ago, new wind energy capacity has equalled or exceeded natural gas capacity for the last two years, EWEA says. | 20th June 2010 |
| The Inside Scoop on the "Climate War" the climate war eric pooley. jpg The first question I had for author Eric Pooley after I finished reading his new book, The Climate War, was whether he had set up hidden cameras all over Washington, DC. He didn' t of course, but the insider information he weaves into his story about the ongoing battle for effective climate policy both in the United States and internationally will make even the insiders feel inadequate. The Climate War puts you at the power- broker''s table, with much of the book following two main characters who have been at the center of the debate and the controversy around climate policy for more than a decade - Fred Krupp, Executive Director of Environmental Defense Fund and Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy. | 20th June 2010 |
| UN considers review of alleged carbon offset abuses Clean Development Mechanism carbon offset scheme faces fresh criticism over dubious emission reduction projects. The UN has confirmed that it is considering a formal review of its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) after a new report leveled fresh criticism at the high profile carbon offsetting scheme. A coalition of green groups working under the banner CDM Watch yesterday tabled a formal request calling on the UN''s climate change secretariat to overhaul the CDM and crack down on alleged "gaming" of the system that has allowed some firms to benefit from increasing their greenhouse gas emissions. The controversy surrounds companies which currently receive carbon credits for capturing and destroying the powerful greenhouse gas HFC-23 - a by product resulting from the production of the refrigerant gas HCFC-22.CDM Watch has alleged the way the CDM is structured means that chemical gas manufacturers based in China and India and South and ... | 20th June 2010 |
| The Much Maligned Mike Hulme Professor Mike Hulme is far too clever for most other people to understand. He has spent many years trying to challenge dogmatism, undermine polarised extremes, create a broader church for Climate Change. Trouble is, people tend to misuse his words. Here he was, back in 2006, trying to unpick some alarmist tendencies :- [link]1/hi/6115644.stm [link]1/hi/ sci/ tech/5236482.stm His intention, presumably, was to avoid the 'doom and gloom' trap of people placing too much urgency on an apparent emergency, then being disappointed by political failure to rise to speedy action. | 20th June 2010 |
| May 2010 was warmest on record: U.S. government data WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Last month was the warmest May on record, the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Tuesday. See also: Global Heat Is On in 2010 So Far | 20th June 2010 |
| Climate changes in the Atlantic can affect drought in distant regions Cyclical changes in atmospheric pressure and sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic Ocean affect drought in the Sahel region on the southern Sahara rim. This has been revealed in an international study carried out by researchers from the University of Haifa, the French National Meteorological Service, Columbia University and the University of San Diego. The study was published recently in the scientific journal Atmospheric Science Letters (Royal Meteorological Society). | 20th June 2010 |
| Geochemist raises questions about carbon sequestration As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, policy makers and scientists are looking at new ways to tackle the problems associated with the greenhouse gas. | 20th June 2010 |
| Obama Seeking New Ideas on Energy and Climate President Obama focuses on the gulf disaster but hints at new approaches on broader energy questions. | 20th June 2010 |
| Global warming makes plants 'sweat' less [BANGALORE] The global warming potential of carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ), a key greenhouse gas, is underestimated as climate change studies do not take into account the crucial fact that plants 'sweat' less when surrounded by more CO 2 , new research shows. | 20th June 2010 |
| Disputing the 'consensus' on global warming - Science is in many ways the opposite of decision by consensus. I have never liked the use of the word 'consensus' as it is typically applied in the climate arena. Scientists don' t really have a 'consensus' so much as they have an 'understanding' of climate science. I wrote an article on this subject in 2008, 'The cold truth about climate change: [Disinformers] continue to insist there''s no consensus on global warming. Well, there''s not. There''s well- tested science and real- world observations [that are much more worrisome].' When James Hansen read the first draft of the piece, he wrote me back, 'Very important for the public to understand this - why has nobody articulated this already?' I don' t know. | 20th June 2010 |
| Take the political heat out of climate scepticism The public is dubious about climate change, and libertarian sceptics are on the march. How can we improve matters, asks Roger Harrabin | 20th June 2010 |
| Ancient ice ages 'linked' to CO2 A "global pattern" of change in the Earth''s climate that began 2.7m years ago could be explained by CO2, say scientists. | 20th June 2010 |
| Destruction of Tropical Forests Leads to Steep Rise in Malaria, Study Says A new study directly links clearing of forests in the Amazon with a pronounced jump in malaria cases. University of Wisconsin researchers, analyzing data from one county in Brazil, said they found a 48 percent increase in malaria cases after 4.2 percent of the country''s tree cover was cleared. 'It appears that deforestation is one of the initial ecological factors that can trigger a malaria epidemic,' said researcher Sarah Olson. Comparing satellite photos showing loss of tree cover with GPS data marking where malaria victims in the county lived, the scientists demonstrated that areas that have not been deforested have considerably lower per capita rates of malaria. | 20th June 2010 |
| Comet cause for climate change theory dealt blow by fungus (Phys. Org. com) -- A team of scientists - led by Professor Andrew C Scott of the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London - have revealed that neither comet nor catastrophe were the cause for abrupt climate change some 12,900 years ago. | 20th June 2010 |
| This Time Is Different 'I' d like to join in on the blame game that has come to define our national approach to the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This isn' t BP''s or Transocean''s fault. It''s not the government''s fault. It''s my fault. I' m the one to blame and I' m sorry. It''s my fault because I haven' t digested the world''s in- your- face hints that maybe I ought to think about the future and change the unsustainable way I live my life. If the geopolitical, economic, and technological shifts of the 1990s didn' t do it ... |
14th June 2010 |
| BP is just a symptom of a dangerous addiction to oil President Obama''s attacks on "British Petroleum" and its chief executive, Tony Hayward, are deeply unedifying. Not because of the hypocrisy and misinformation involved, though there is plenty of that: BP has not been called British Petroleum for years and its controversial dividend is denominated in US dollars. Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, conjured up images of pound notes flowing into pinstriped pockets in the City when she suggested shareholders had "deeper pockets" than fishermen on the Gulf coast. But recipients of the divi are not all fat cats, and they are certainly not all British. About 40% of BP''s dividends are paid to US small investors and pension fund members, including teachers in California and Texas. |
14th June 2010 |
| Boycott Big Oil? Prepare to give up your lifestyle WASHINGTON " Has the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico got you so mad you' re ready to quit Big Oil? Ready to park the car and take up bike- riding or walking? Well, your bike and your sneakers have petroleum products in them. And sure, you can curb energy use by shutting off the AC, but the electric fans you switch to have plastic from oil and gas in them. And the insulation to keep your home cool, also started as oil and gas. Without all that, you' ll sweat and it' ll be all too noticeable because deodorant comes from oil and gas too. |
14th June 2010 |
| David King: We must abandon oil before it's too late The Gulf of Mexico spill has made it imperative that we end our dependency on petrol. How much should we worry about running out of oil? Of late, there have been disparate predictions for our oil reserves, with some claiming that oil will last us for decades. In fact, the question is not so much: "When will there be no more oil left for us to take?" but, rather: "When will demand outstrip production?" And that could happen sooner than most people realise. This is an issue that governments around the world, including our own, are ignoring despite the potential risk to our economies. Conventional oil production has a limited capacity. |
14th June 2010 |
| From ecological tragedy to political nightmare Fifty days in, the backlash from the BP oil spill is being felt on both sides of the Atlantic. As the special relationship comes under strain, Obama invests an unprecedented amount of presidential time on a visit to the Gulf, while Cameron faces rightwing flak. The anger is palpable in the southern Louisiana towns where livelihoods are being slowly and inexorably choked by oil. Pickup trucks with "BP sucks" scrawled on their panels bounce along the roads. Anti- BP rallies are planned this weekend in communities too small to rate a petrol station but which now sport giant billboards advertising law firms touting for people who want to sue the oil giant for compensation. |
14th June 2010 |
| What's wrong with the sun? Right now our nearest star should be flaring up as never before. But instead it''s eerily calm - and we need to find out why See also: As the Sun Awakens, NASA Keeps a Wary Eye on Space Weather |
14th June 2010 |
| Warmer climate thaws ice cellars in Arctic villages Residents who rely on a subsistence diet are having to throw out spoiled whale meat. |
14th June 2010 |
| French oyster business faces fresh plague crisis From the Mediterranean coast to the bay of Arcachon on the Atlantic and now Brittany, farmers have been watching in dismay in recent weeks as the virus once again moved northwards, keeping pace with the rising sea temperature. In 2008 and 2009, the industry was ravaged by the same epidemic, with many farms losing 80-100% of their stocks of naissains - first- year spats. Because it takes three years to grow a commercially viable oyster, so far the economic impact of the crisis has been limited. But now all pre-2008 production has been depleted, so major shortages are predicted next winter when demand peaks around Christmas and New Year. |
14th June 2010 |
| Climate talks: goodwill down the toilet, or not? Two weeks of international talks in Bonn ended on something of a sour note when Saudi Arabia and two other Gulf fossil- fuel producers blocked a proposal for an updated report on the effect of a 1.5 degree increase in climate. |
14th June 2010 |
| Fossil Fuels versus Corn Ethanol So, digging up dirty old decaying fish causes massive coastland and marine pollution. Would bioethanol from corn be better ? [link] energy- source/2010/06/14/is- bps- oil- spill- an- opportunity- for- the- ethanol- lobby/ Not really. First there''s the amount of land required to grow all that corn to burn in all those tanks (see diagram at top of page). Then, there''s the competition between food and fuel that that will generate. Then there''s the continued hazard from airborne particulates that you get from burning anything in infernal, I mean, internal combustion engines :- [link] blog/20100609/new- questions- about- toxic- products- biofuel- combustion And last, and by no means least, Corn Ethanol production would keep Archer Daniels Midland in business, and that would mean they would own not only (unresearched ... |
14th June 2010 |
| Recent trends in CO2 emissions Guest commentary by Corinne Le Quéré, Michael R. Raupach, and Joseph G. Canadell There is a letter in Nature Geoscience this month by Manning et al (sub. reqd.) 'Misrepresentation of the IPCC CO2 emission scenarios' discussing some recent statements about the growth rates of CO2 emissions compared to the IPCC scenarios that informed the climate modeling in the last IPCC report. In it they refer to results published by us and colleagues in a couple of recent papers (Raupach et al. 2007; Le Quéré et al. 2009), and to statements made by others on the basis of our results (Ganguly et al. |
14th June 2010 |
| Harper pressured to put climate change on G8, G20 agenda - Vancouver Sun CBC. ca. Harper pressured to put climate change on G8, G20 agenda. Vancouver Sun... some issues surrounding climate change. At the same time, the G20 isn' t expected to replace the United Nations (global- warming) negotiating process. ...International summits have become outdated. St. Thomas Times- Journal. National Affairs. Orangeville Citizenall 352 |
14th June 2010 |
| OPEC takes flak for UN climate veto - National AFPOPEC takes flak for UN climate veto. National. Reuters Several OPEC nations have blocked a proposal for a UN inquiry into tougher action against global warming but not without a barrage of criticism from ...Saudis block call for global warming report. AFPSaudi placard vandalized, climate talks slowed further. Sify. Oil nations block switch to 1.5°C climate goal. EurActiv. Irish Times -Reuters UK -Indian Expressall 71 |
14th June 2010 |
| Hedge funds sweeping through beleaguered ethanol industry for bargains A mile down an unpaved road on the outskirts of Canton, Ill., population 14,500, stands a shuttered ethanol plant. |
14th June 2010 |
| Climate scientists say attacks against them have increased stolen e-mail flap WALNUT CREEK, Calif. A few years ago, Ben Santer, a climate scientist with Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Washington, answered a 10 p. m. doorbell ring at his home. After opening the door, he found a dead rat on the doorstep and a man in a yellow Hummer speeding away and shouting curses. |
14th June 2010 |
| The oil spill and credit crunch were bad. An oil crunch would be worse | Jeremy Leggett Small print of BP Statistical Review of World Energy is troubling. Big as BP''s problems are as a result of failed risk assessments, it will very probably soon become worse. Growing numbers of people doubt its annual review of oil reserves, published today. Society builds its oil dependency on key cultural statements of faith about secure supply, such as BP''s annual announcement that there is 40 years of supply or more, and no danger of supply falling short of demand, so ambushing oil- addicted economies. You would think that BP''s risk- assessment failures in the Gulf, and in US refineries, would make the company measured, given the stakes in this particular assessment. |
12th June 2010 |
| We're all to blame for the oil spill | Mark Coeckelbergh It''s our addiction to cheap fuel that drives the high- risk, poorly regulated sector producing business models like BP' sWho''s to blame for the Gulf oil spill? Many commentators point the finger at BP and the United States government. This focus is understandable " but gives an incomplete picture of how moral responsibility is distributed in this kind of case. Getting a better idea of distribution is important for blame and punishment but also for prevention: we don' t want this to happen again. Ascribing responsibility here can be knotty, owing to the wide range of actors involved in oil production. What BP does in this context depends on other corporate actors. |
12th June 2010 |
| Global Warming Deniers and Their Proven Strategy of Doubt For years, free- market fundamentalists opposed to government regulation have sought to create doubt in the public''s mind about the dangers of smoking, acid rain, and ozone depletion. Now they have turned those same tactics on the issue of global warming and on climate scientists, with significant success. BY NAOMI ORESKES AND ERIK M. CONWAY |
12th June 2010 |
| World at risk of "red card" over climate: de Boer BONN (Reuters) - Climate negotiators gave a standing ovation to the outgoing head of the U. N. climate change secretariat Wednesday even after he told them they would be at risk of a red card in a soccer match for wasting time. |
12th June 2010 |
| Extreme warming in Arctic will cause colder winters-and political gridlock by Tom Laskawy. The political (or at least the Senatorial) tides are running strongly against a muscular policy response to climate change. Now a top NOAA scientist tells us that even the winds are blowing in the wrong direction- actual winds, mind you, not political. Via Science Daily: A warmer Arctic climate is influencing the air pressure at the North Pole and shifting wind patterns on our planet. We can expect more cold and snowy winters in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America. 'Cold and snowy winters will be the rule, rather than the exception,' says Dr. |
12th June 2010 |
| The Hottest Ever Image Credit : NASA GISS NASA GISS compute that the period January to May for 2010 has been the hottest ever on record. Of course, the Sun is the ultimate cause of rising temperatures on Earth. The energy from the Sun is the driving force behind all the weather systems, ocean currents, wind storms and cloud activity. But it''s the things you can' t see that are the most significant. Sunspots are theorised to indicate energy output from the Sun, that has an impact on temperatures on Earth. Higher sunspot activity would point to higher levels of energy reaching Earth. See also: NASA: Easily the hottest spring - and Jan-May - in temperature record - Plus another record 12-month global temperature |
12th June 2010 |
| Study: Shrinking glaciers to spark food shortages (AP) -- Nearly 60 million people living around the Himalayas will suffer food shortages in the coming decades as glaciers shrink and the water sources for crops dry up, a study said Thursday. |
12th June 2010 |
| Prominent U.S. Executives Call For Major Increase in Energy Research A group of powerful U. S. business leaders has called on the government to sharply increase funding of renewable energy research or risk falling far behind other nations in the race to replace fossil fuels with green technologies. The group, which includes Microsoft co- founder Bill Gates, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, and venture capitalist John Doerr, said the government should triple spending on energy research and development to $16 billion a year and create a national energy board to oversee investment decisions in renewable energy research. Gates, speaking for the group, the American Energy Innovation Council, said it was vital that the nation reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and slash greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. |
12th June 2010 |
| Cutting fuel subsidies will cut CO2 emissions: OECD Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent from levels they would otherwise reach in 2050, the OECD said Wednesday. |
12th June 2010 |
| Lockbox may be making a political comeback Republicans may be coming around to former Vice President Al Gore''s way of thinking. Not on climate change, but on the "lockbox." During his failed 2000 presidential bid, Gore talked about setting aside Social Security tax surpluses and putting them in a kind of "lockbox" to keep them off limits for other government spending and tax cuts. NBC''s "Saturday Night Live" comedy show made great fun of the Democrat''s comment. Now Senate Republicans have revived the idea. Not for Social Security, but for the oil spill clean up fund. Democrats are proposing to increase the oil spill clean up fund tax to 41 cents a barrel from 8 cents a barrel. |
12th June 2010 |
| Senate defeats bid to limit EPA authority to regulate emissions The Senate Thursday defeated 53-47 an effort to limit the Environmental Protection Agency''s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and President Barack Obama said the vote was a reminder of the need to pass more comprehensive climate change legislation. |
12th June 2010 |
| Working towards a holistic change OUR journey towards Vision 2020 is full of challenges and uncertainties at the global level. The global economic landscape today has changed significantly and Malaysia can no longer depend on a low- cost structure to remain competitive internationally. |
12th June 2010 |
| Wal-Mart Goes Green Wal-Mart, the original Black Hat, is going green. Or better said, sustainable. Let that sink in because it is true. Big time. So much so that Treehugger.com says It "could end up being one of the biggest motivators to make truly 'green' products ever." As in history of the world. Wal-Mart has made believers out of not just the biggest environmental organizations in the world -- like the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Wildlife Federation -- but also Wal-Mart's suppliers. It started five years ago when Wal-Mart announced three goals: 1) 100 percent renewable energy; 2) Zero waste; 3) Sustainable products. |
12th June 2010 |
| If There Was Ever a Moment to Seize Here''s the president on March 31st, announcing his plan to lift a longstanding moratorium on offshore drilling: "Given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs, and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy." read more |
12th June 2010 |
| Video: The National Geographic Archive: The water-powered battery A battery that runs on water may be in our cars and homes in the very near future |
12th June 2010 |
| New UN climate chief urges action The incoming head of the UN climate convention says rich nations must pledge bigger emission cuts. |
12th June 2010 |
| Energy Secretary welcomes Republican climate bill WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Wednesday gave limited support to a Republican senator for introducing an alternative climate bill that would limit emissions by less than President Barack Obama wants to, but would also take steps to reduce U. S. dependence on oil. |
12th June 2010 |
| Biofuels from deforested land to fail EU standards BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Palm oil grown on recently deforested land is unlikely to be acceptable for use in European biodiesel, a draft report from the European Commission shows. |
12th June 2010 |
| China fossil fuel CO2 jumps as global total falls LONDON (Reuters) - China could face increasing pressure in U. N. climate talks after data released on Wednesday showed the country''s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel rose by 9 percent in 2009, bucking a global downtrend. |
12th June 2010 |
| Michael Tomasky: Energy and reality A lot has happened in the last few days on energy and climate change in the Senate, most of it not so great. But it sets up a classic half- a-loaf kind of dilemma for liberals. First, on Sunday, Chuck Schumer said the Senate would be aiming low on energy and that the Kerry- Lieberman mega- legislation, which puts a price on carbon emissions via cap- and- trade, wasn' t necessarily the template. He spoke a little prematurely and walked that back. Then, yesterday, Lindsey Graham, the only Republican who was playing ball here and whose name used to be on that legislation, said definitively that he wouldn' t support the current version of that bill. |
12th June 2010 |
| Gulfs remain after climate talks UN climate talks end in Bonn with talk of an improved mood but major gulfs remain between blocs. |
12th June 2010 |
| Rich slammed on carbon 'cheating' Campaigners accuse some rich nations of trying to gain carbon credits for "business as usual". |
12th June 2010 |
| Fixing Planet Earth: a not-so-modest proposal Mahatma Gandhi is widely regarded as the father of the Indian nation, which he was. But the founding of the nation was not his only aim. He was, as he freely admitted, using India to demonstrate to the whole world how nonviolence could change history. The swell of mostly nonviolent revolutions that has followed in the last 30 or so years would seem to indicate that his bold scheme worked. read more |
12th June 2010 |
| Apocalypse Now and Next: From Gulf Spill to Nuke Disaster We just ignited a disaster beyond our technical control. Why are we on the brink of doing it again? |
12th June 2010 |
| The BP Disaster Marks the End of the Age of Arrogance About the Environment ... Can We Change? This spill will mark the time we started to learn about ecocide; a turning point in our realization that our industrial, carbon- dependent way of life cannot last. |
12th June 2010 |
| Greenpeace competition to redesign BP logo Images from a Greenpeace competition to redesign the BP logo following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico |
12th June 2010 |
| Confidence in climate science strong: poll Survey shows 71% of Britons are concerned about climate, despite hacked emails, failure at Copenhagen and cold weather. Climate science''s winter of discontent has not made a large impact on the British public''s attitudes to global warming, according to poll of over 1,800 people. The poll, by researchers at the University of Cardiff, showed a small drop in public acceptance of climate change but not the major falls that some observers had predicted after a series of media controversies over the actions of climate scientists, combined with the failure of the Copenhagen summit and the record- breaking cold temperatures."By no means has there been a collapse in confidence in climate science," said Professor Nick Pidgeon, who led the study. |
12th June 2010 |
| Mass. Study: Wood Power Worse Polluter Than Coal Wood- burning power plants release more greenhouse gases into the air than coal over time. |
12th June 2010 |
| Critics slam climate change proposal A new round of climate talks has ended with rich and poor countries criticising a new text meant to pave the way toward a deal to halt global warming. |
12th June 2010 |
| US pollsters argue over public view on climate change A new survey suggests that climate science scandals don' t bother people in the US much " but hot words have been exchanged about global warming polls |
12th June 2010 |
| Engineers say Interior changed oil report after they signed it A group of engineers and oil experts said Friday that the Interior Department changed the language of a high- profile oil spill report after they' d signed it, falsely signaling their support for a drilling moratorium that they thought went too far. |
12th June 2010 |
| France, UK, Sweden want deep CO2 cut, Italy opposed LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Western European countries gave strong backing to deeper cuts to climate- warming emissions on Friday, but Italy''s environment minister said her peers were deluded. |
12th June 2010 |
| New U.N. climate text omits deepest 2050 carbon cuts BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Negotiators from 185 nations end two weeks of talks on a new climate treaty on Friday with a new blueprint for a pact that omits the most draconian options for greenhouse gas cuts by 2050. |
12th June 2010 |
| UK grows more skeptical on climate change: poll LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has become more skeptical about climate change, more supportive of nuclear power, and more worried about depending on energy imports, a poll by Cardiff University on Friday showed. |
12th June 2010 |
| Inside the Beltway Climate War A new book charts the troubling back story behind the struggle to craft laws limiting the human impact on climate. |
12th June 2010 |
| Climate in an Impolitic World An all- day online discussion of climate, energy, communication and public attitudes. |
12th June 2010 |
| Attack on climate scientist just latest in a long line - CNN Washington Post. Attack on climate scientist just latest in a long line. CNN... is more associated with global warming than Roger Revelle, mentor to Al Gore, who first warned of the risks of human- caused climate change in the 1950s. ...When in doubt, trust science. Record- Searchlight (blog) Unmasking disinformation, from tobacco to climate. Washington Post. Climate Science and the IPCC Fail Legal Cross Examination. Canada Free Press. Scoop. co. nz (press release) all 7 |
12th June 2010 |
| BP Gulf of Mexico crisis will transform the oil industry -Kees Willemse is professor of off- shore engineering, Delft University. The opinions expressed are his own.- The news that a huge metal cap has been successfully placed over several of the leaking oil vents at the Deepwater Horizon site marks a potential turning point in the Gulf of Mexico crisis. It is already estimated that each day some 10-15,000 barrels of the oil that are spilling out into the ocean are being captured and diverted to ships on the sea surface. Despite this engineering success, a complete end to the oil leakage is unlikely until new relief oil wells are completed -- a drilling process that could take most of the summer, and potentially into the autumn. |
12th June 2010 |
| Obama is right to slam BP and why capitalists should too Put aside the environmental impact of the BP oil spill for a minute " massive as it is " because right- wingers don' t really care for little things like that. Instead they' re whinging that Obama is slamming their favourite oil company far too much. It hurts their pride you know. Oh and it hurts our pensions! Damn that Obama, does he not care for our goddamn pensions?. Who cares for those people whose livelihoods have been lost thanks to the obscene amounts of oil that is about to hit their shores? Certainly not these idiots. Ben Goldacre tweeted yesterday ... |
12th June 2010 |
| Carbon sink plans sunk by stalling of emission plan Tree- planting schemes and carbon- offset projects could be abandoned at the end of the month, another casualty of the federal government''s delayed emissions trading scheme. |
9th June 2010 |
| Alex Rafalowicz: Update from Bonn: The Crazy Killing of the Kyoto Protocol The EU used to be characterized by its 'ambition and contribution' to a strong international climate regime, but here in Bonn they are showing a distinct lack of courage, and as the German''s say, when you lose your courage you lose everything. |
9th June 2010 |
| The addict's excuse As I read Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal''s letter to President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking them to reconsider a six- month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling, I was reminded of a Wendell Berry essay I read several years ago. In "Word and Flesh" Berry wrote, "The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are dependent on what is wrong. But that is the addict''s excuse, and we know that it will not do." Or do we? The Gulf of Mexico is currently experiencing the human equivalent of metastasizing cancer, and the governor of Louisiana proposes that the activities which resulted in that cancer be resumed immediately even as BP''s underwater gusher continues to flow into the gulf. |
9th June 2010 |
| Dale Pendell: An Economy Not Worth Saving Let the recession come. The earth needs a recession, badly, globally. |
9th June 2010 |
| The oil firms' profits ignore the real costs | George Monbiot The energy industry has long dumped its damage and, like the banks, made scant provision against disaster. Time to pay up. Has BP ever made a profit? The question looks daft. The oil company posted profits of $26bn last year. There''s no doubt that BP has been pumping money into the pockets of its shareholders. The question is whether this money is what the company says it is. BP calls it profit. I call it the provision the firm should be making against future liabilities. Despite an angry letter from two US senators and a warning from Barack Obama about spending big money on their shareholders while nickel- and- diming coastal people, despite the fact that it has no idea what its total liabilities in the Gulf of Mexico will be, BP seems to be planning to pay a dividend this year. See also: BP buys 'oil spill' sponsored links for search engines |
9th June 2010 |
| Europe's Green Energy Portfolio Up in Smoke? BERLIN, Jun 7 (IPS) - Europe seems hell- bent on burning the world''s forests for bioenergy, even as it offers billions of euros to save them, critics say. |
9th June 2010 |
| New climate chief: 'no choice' but to take action - The Associated Press AFPNew climate chief: 'no choice' but to take action. The Associated Press. BONN, Germany - The new UN climate chief says nations have no choice but to join forces to stop global warming, even after her predecessor said he doubts ...I had both failure and success: outgoing UN climate chief (Interview) Sify. UN climate chief forecasts missed targets on emissions. Irish TimesA gentle breeze of optimism detected at UN climate talks. Sydney Morning Herald. AFP -PR Newswire (press release) -Jakarta Globeall 254 |
9th June 2010 |
| Major Vegetation Shifts Occurring Because of Warming, Study Says Rising global temperatures over the past century are already causing large shifts in vegetation, with trees and plants increasingly moving toward the poles and up mountain slopes, according to a new study. Conduced by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the U. S. Forest Service, the research combined data from hundreds of previous studies and found that 76 percent of the Earth''s land surfaces experienced significant temperatures increases in the 20th century, causing shifts in vegetation. The changes were most prominent in Arctic and sub- Arctic landscapes, where shrublands have been moving into tundra regions, and Click to enlarge. UC Berkeley/ Gonzalez, et al. Projected vegetation shift through 2100 in northern Africa''s Sahel region, where woodlands are giving way to grasslands. |
9th June 2010 |
| Blackout Asia : Crispy Baking While Europe has been enjoying an early Summer, elsewhere in the world high air temperatures have been record- breaking. When the heat gets this bad, public services need to provide air- conditioned community shelters as a key adaptational strategy. But any plans of this nature are being thwarted by power shortages, for example, in India and Pakistan :- [link] world/2010/06/01/200-dead- in- india- heatwave/ '200 Dead In India Heatwave', 01 June 2010 [link] commentisfree/2010/jun/07/pakistan- energy- policy- proving- deadly 'Pakistan''s heatwave and a deadly lack of energy policy ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Drought threatens Thailand's rice crop The world''s largest rice exporter, Thailand, is facing major losses to its next crop of rice and a water crisis because of the worst drought in nearly two decades. |
9th June 2010 |
| OECD tells G20 fossil fuel subsidies should end PARIS (Reuters) - The OECD urged governments to end fossil fuels subsidies in a statement on Wednesday that argued this could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent and help deliver on G20 promises to combat global warming. Leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers meet in Toronto in late June and pledged last September in Pittsburgh to press for a phase- out over the medium term, the Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development said. |
9th June 2010 |
| Post BP Disaster: Support grows for comprehensive energy bill that makes carbon polluters pay As the BP oil disaster drags on, the public''s desire for clean energy investments and increased oversight of corporate polluters has greatly intensified. CAP''s Daniel J. Weiss and intern Ariel Powell have the important data and charts from a major new poll. The League of Conservation Voters commissioned a poll by the Benenson Strategy Group, President Obama''s pollster in 2008, to measure public support for clean energy reform in the wake of the BP oil disaster. The central finding is that the public wants real changes in our energy policies: In the aftermath of the spill, people firmly believe Congress needs to do more than just make BP pay. |
9th June 2010 |
| My bright idea: Environment Following the frugal example set by our hunter' gatherer forebears is the best way to combat today''s environmental challenges, says explorer Spencer Wells. Spencer Wells has a job that most people would kill for. He is explorer- in- residence for National Geographic and his work has taken him to every corner of the globe. His particular interests have nothing to do with wild places, however. His fascination lies with the people who inhabit these remote corners: how did they get there and what are their biological relations with other inhabitants of the planet? Wells is a geneticist and leader of the Genographic project, funded by National Geographic, which has traced the movements of human populations since we first emerged from our sub- Saharan homeland 100,000 years ago and colonised the planet. |
9th June 2010 |
| Support for U.S. climate regulation growing: poll WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing number of Americans want the United States to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as the largest oil spill in U. S. history helps boost interest in petroleum alternatives, a poll by two universities found on Tuesday. See also: Poll: American opinion on climate change warms up The Climate Majority - New York Times |
9th June 2010 |
| White House eyes veto if Senate curbs EPA climate power WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday threatened a presidential veto if Congress passes a measure to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. |
9th June 2010 |
| BP chief Tony Hayward sold shares weeks before oil spill The chief executive of BP sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused its value to collapse. [Lucky Tony] |
9th June 2010 |
| Nuclear fusion dream hit by EU's cash dilemma £1bn funding shortfall jeopardises hopes of producing cheap, non- polluting powerA £15bn international bid to harness the fusion process that powers the Sun is facing a major funding crisis. Scientists have revealed that the cost of the International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor (Iter) has trebled from its original £5bn price tag in the past three years. At the same time, financial crises have beset all the nations involved in the project. As a result, construction of Iter " at Cadarache in France " has already been pushed back from 2015 to 2019, and further delays are likely. Some scientists say there is a risk that the entire project could be cancelled. Because it is hoped that fusion plants could one day supply the world with cheap, non- polluting power, the crisis facing Iter represents a substantial threat to plans to tackle the planet''s energy and climate problems. ... |
9th June 2010 |
| GM lobby helped draw up crucial report on Britain's food supplies Email trail shows how biotech group helped watchdog to draw up analysis of GM crops ... and prompted two advisers to quitA powerful lobbying organisation representing agribusiness interests helped draft a key government report that has been attacked by environmentalists for heavily favouring the arguments of the genetically modified food industry. The revelation comes after the resignation of two government advisers who have criticised the close relationship between the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the body that oversees the UK''s food industry, and the GM lobby. Emails between the FSA and the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC) show the council inserted key sentences strengthening the case for GM food that ended up in the final report. The report, "Food Standards Agency work on changes in the market and the GM regulatory system", examines how GM products are entering the UK, where the growing of GM products is ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Tread cautiously on fossil fuel use: experts to govt India Inc should end its dependence on fossil fuel and consumers should be more disciplined in their use of subsidised fuel, but the government has to be cautious while considering harsh disincentives to the use of fossil fuel such as a carbon tax. |
9th June 2010 |
| Better way to calculate greenhouse gas value of ecosystems Researchers have developed a new, more accurate method of calculating the change in greenhouse gas emissions that results from changes in land use. The new approach takes into account many factors not included in previous methods, such as the ecosystem''s ability to take up or release greenhouse gases over time and all of the greenhouse gases absorbed and released in the process of introducing ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Radical plan to combat global warming 'may raise temperatures' - Independent Radical plan to combat global warming 'may raise temperatures' Independent... as a serious topic of study, given the international failure to curb global emissions of carbon dioxide and the possibility of extreme climate change. ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Oil spill is a sign to Congress: kick the fossil-fuel habit - Boston Globe WKRG- TVOil spill is a sign to Congress: kick the fossil- fuel habit. Boston Globe. IF THE threat of global warming doesn' t persuade Congress of the need to reduce America''s reliance on oil and coal, the vast slick now befouling the Gulf of ...Mr. President, lead now on fossil fuels. Los Angeles Timesall 167 |
9th June 2010 |
| McKibben: Mr. President, lead now on fossil fuels Bill Mc. Kibben - counder of 350.org, long- time guest blogger, and the author most recently of the must- read book Eaarth - has an op- ed in the LA Times on the spill- to- bill pivot: Here''s the president on March 31, announcing his plan to lift a longstanding moratorium on offshore drilling: 'Given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy.' And here he is on May 26, as political pressure started to really build over BP''s hole in the bottom of the sea ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Is Obama Serious About Breaking Our Catastrophic Oil Addiction? Has the President been transformed by the oil spill in the Gulf, or is he merely trying to ride out the public reaction? |
9th June 2010 |
| Honeybee collapse: Stung from behind Distracted by a mysterious rash of dying bees, researchers may be overlooking a more insidious pollinator crisis. It has little to do with bees and everything to do with booming markets for raspberries, pears, and chocolate Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe. Beekeeper Eric Olson has lost so many bees in the past few years, he''s had to consider closing shop. But nothing prepared him for what he found when he went out early one November morning to do a final check on "his girls," as he calls them. The first hive was dead - completely empty. |
9th June 2010 |
| Michael Tomasky: Why no big energy bill? You' d think the time was exactly right for a big new energy bill, right? I mean, if the American public is ever going to be attuned to these issues, it would be now, with all those images of those poor pelicans trying vainly to flap their oil- soaked wings. Well, things don' t work that way in 2010 America. Yes, it''s true, there''s a new poll out showing a majority opposing offshore drilling for the first time in a while. But look how close the numbers are: With oil continuing to stream into the Gulf, a majority of Americans - 51 percent -- say the costs and risks of increased offshore drilling are too great, according to a new CBS News poll. |
9th June 2010 |
| Give decision makers access to the value of nature's services | Chantal Jouanno and Janet Ranganathan This week, governments will meet in Korea to decide whether to establish an intergovernmental panel on biodiverisy services. It is all too easy to forget in the city- centred 21st century that human wellbeing is utterly dependent on the natural world. To state the obvious, we cannot survive without fresh water, food and fuel. And yet every day countless decisions are made whose ripple effects will degrade or destroy the vital goods and services that nature provides to people. Asian forests are cleared to boost timber exports, leading to erosion, landslides and the release of stored carbon that fuels climate change. Over- grazing by goats reared to meet overseas demand for cashmere clothing degrades grasslands in Mongolia. |
9th June 2010 |
| 10 years needed to agree on global climate action, says U.N. pointman by Agence France- Presse. PARIS- The world community may need another 10 years to agree on carbon cuts deep enough to roll back global warming, the U. N.'s pointman for climate change warned on Monday. 'I don' t see the process delivering adequate mitigation targets in the next decade,' Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said in a webcast from Bonn. 'Over the longer term, I think we will get this issue under control. Having said that, I do believe that it''s a longer journey.' De Boer spoke on the sidelines of a 12-day round of negotiations for a post-2012 treaty to curb the greenhouse gases that are disrupting Earth''s climate system. |
9th June 2010 |
| Climate Intervention Schemes Could Be Undone by Geopolitics As global warming intensifies, demands for human manipulation of the climate system are likely to grow. But carrying out geoengineering plans could prove daunting, as conflicts erupt over the unintended regional consequences of climate intervention and over who is entitled to deploy climate- altering technologies. BY MIKE HULME |
9th June 2010 |
| UN climate chief warns 2020 carbon targets will be missed James Murray, Business. Green , Tuesday 8 June 2010 at 11:14:00 As advisory group mulls proposal for aviation carbon tax, Yvo de Boer warns the world is not moving fast enough to cut emissions Yvo de Boer, the outgoing UN climate change chief, has offered arguably the bleakest assessment yet of the chances of an ambitious international climate treaty being agreed, warning that the world is ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Climate Depot Update From Bonn: Discord, Blame and Profiteering at UN Bonn Climate Conference as UN Scrambles to Get ... BONN, Germany, June 8 /PRNewswire- USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow: |
9th June 2010 |
| Global fossil fuel CO2 falls, 1st time since '98: BP LONDON (Reuters) - Global greenhouse gas emissions from energy use fell for the first time since 1998, as the economic recession slashed industrial production and fossil fuel consumption in most countries, BP said on Wednesday. |
9th June 2010 |
| Wind turbines take to the skies The inventor is currently putting the final touches to a series of large kites, which he says will be able to harvest the fast crosswinds found at high altitude. His airborne wind turbines will take off and fly to around 2000 feet (600m), where they will float, generating power that can be transferred to the ground via a tether. "Global wind is a tremendous source of energy - carrying nearly 870 terrawatts in global tropospheric winds," says Mr Bevirt of Joby Energy, which is developing the wind turbine technology. "In comparison, the global demand is 17 terawatts. Harnessing a tiny fraction will transform the way we power our civilization." |
5th June 2010 |
| Obama calls for higher prices on carbon emissions President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has hardened his resolve to impose "a price" on carbon emissions to drive private investment away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. |
5th June 2010 |
| Go veggie, cut fossil fuels to aid planet: study OSLO (Reuters) - An overhaul of world farming and more vegetarianism should be top priorities to protect the environment, along with curbs on fossil fuel use, a U. N.-backed study said on Wednesday. |
5th June 2010 |
| Canadian forest fires spark alerts in Quebec and US Firefighters in Canada are battling more than 50 forest fires that have sparked smog alerts across Quebec and parts of the north- eastern US. At least eight of the blazes north of Montreal were out of control, Quebec''s forest fire protection unit said. Smoke moved over Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the US, with the city of Boston covered in a haze on Monday. Officials in both countries have warned people with breathing problems to remain indoors until the smoke clears. The fires - sparked by lightning strikes - have raged for a week, and more than 1,300 firefighters were battling the blazes on Monday evening. |
5th June 2010 |
| First in the world floating plant of ecological desalination First in the world floating plant of ecological desalination Project Research team of Aegean University professors N. Nikitakos T. Lilla and N. Vatistas. See also: Desalination plant opens in London |
5th June 2010 |
| 2010 on track to become warmest year ever Figures from US scientists show Arctic sea ice is at a record low, while land temperatures are likely to hit new highs Nasa scientist James Hansen condemns 'politicised' media. New data from some of the world''s leading climate researchers and institutions suggest that 2010 is shaping up to be one of the warmest years ever recorded. Scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Centre Data Centre (NSIDC) report today that Arctic sea ice " frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface " is now at its lowest physical extent ever recorded for the time of year, suggesting that it is on course to break the previous record low set in 2007.Satellite monitoring by the NSIDC in Boulder, Colorado, shows that the melting of sea ice has been unusually fast this year, with as much as 40,000 sq km now disappearing daily. The melt season started almost ... |
5th June 2010 |
| Temperatures reach record high in Pakistan Meteorologists record a temperature of 53.7C (129F) in Mohenjo- daro as heatwave continues across Pakistan and India. Mohenjo- daro, a ruined city in what is now Pakistan that contains the last traces of a 4,000-year- old civilisation that flourished on the banks of the river Indus, today entered the modern history books after government meteorologists recorded a temperature of 53.7C (129F). Only Al 'Aziziyah, in Libya (57.8C in 1922), Death valley in California (56.7 in 1913) and Tirat Zvi in Israel (53.9 in 1942) are thought to have been hotter. Temperatures in the nearest town, Larkana, have been only slightly lower in the last week, with 53C recorded last Wednesday. |
5th June 2010 |
| Algal blooms hit the poor of India hard The problem of toxic algae is not just confined to the Nordic countries - in India algal blooms are threatening poor people''s access to food and their livelihoods, a problem that has been exacerbated by global warming. With funding from the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, researchers from the University of Gothenburg are to attempt to reduce the effects of algal blooms. |
5th June 2010 |
| Warming threatens state's coast, scientists say - San Francisco Chronicle Warming threatens state''s coast, scientists say. San Francisco Chronicle. They proposed a greatly increased effort to inform the public about the effects of global warming on the complex ecology of a region where life in the ocean ...Report: climate change could affect ocean species off Marin''s shores. Marin Independent- Journalall 3 |
5th June 2010 |
| Food for thought while millions die of hunger The world is rapidly moving towards disaster, whether you call it doomsday or apocalypse. But this is not the global financial crisis or the risk of financial problems in Greece and other European countries that may drag the rest of the world down with them. No, this is the global food situation. We face a global food shortage, the like of which the world has never seen. |
5th June 2010 |
| Change in the air Green energy is all the rage, but who pays for reforms? |
5th June 2010 |
| US airlines mount legal challenge to EU emission cuts American aviation sector accused of using 'every trick in the book' to block the European Union''s efforts to reduce carbon emissions |
5th June 2010 |
| EDF secret lobbying over radioactive waste Reactors builder won big concessions on key issues Rethink on costs is in effect a subsidy, says Greenpeace. The nuclear industry is being offered what campaigners claim is a taxpayer subsidy on the disposal costs of waste from new reactors following a secret lobbying campaign, the Guardian has learned. The revelation will put further scrutiny on the new government''s promise that there will be no subsidy for nuclear power. Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne, the new energy and climate change secretary of state, admitted to the Guardian this week that the government already faces a £4bn funding black hole over existing radioactive waste. The previous government had planned to charge the industry a high, fixed, disposal levy tied to the amount of nuclear waste it produced. |
5th June 2010 |
| How climate scientists can repair their reputation Climatologists can' t just hope that the public will regain trust in their work. They need to go on a PR offensive, says Bob Ward |
5th June 2010 |
| Climate Change and the Role of Energy Efficiency Samuel Charap and Georgi V. Safonov outline Russia''s role in climate policy both at home and abroad. |
5th June 2010 |
| Kevin Grandia: Climate financing: put the money on the barrel at the Bonn climate talks One of the major issues at the climate treaty talks underway in Bonn, Germany this week is a big idea encapsulated in a simple phrase:... |
5th June 2010 |
| Alex Rafalowicz: Where's the Obama Era Change on Climate Change? The deep dark secret of international climate change policy is that Obama has been worse than Bush. Worse for international climate law, and more importantly for the planet. |
5th June 2010 |
| First Obama climate report to UN projects 4 per cent emissions rise by 2012 In its first major climate report to the United Nations in four years, the United States projected Tuesday that its climate- warming greenhouse gases will grow by 4 per cent through 2020. |
5th June 2010 |
| The numbers say it all: Canada is a climate-change miscreant The annual report required by all signatories to the original Kyoto Protocol is depressing See also: Canada cuts greenhouse gas emissions target for 2010-2012 |
5th June 2010 |
| China 'not optimistic' on emissions cuts China, the world''s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, faces serious challenges to its efforts to cut environmental pollution, with one key pollutant increasing for the first time in three years, a senior Chinese official said Thursday. |
5th June 2010 |
| Who is responsible for cleaning up our oceans? " David Rockefeller, Jr. is a philanthropist and CEO of Around the Americas and Chairman of Sailors for the Sea. Any views expressed here are his own. " When the Ocean Watch set sail from Seattle last May at the launch of our Around the Americas expedition, our greatest challenge was to make Americans start thinking about health of oceans. For too long, we have been taking our rich seafood supplies and scenic seascapes for granted. One year and 28,000 miles later, and now with the massive BP oil spill, much has changed. While I' d love to say that our expedition is responsible for finally turning around the slow drip of public concern for ocean health into a steady flow, I am fairly certain that the continuous flow of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico is, unfortunately, driving home what the captain and crew of Ocean ... |
5th June 2010 |
| The dumbing down of Carly Fiorina - Salon Modesto Bee. The dumbing down of Carly Fiorina. Salon. Fiorina''s first sentence -- willfully pretending that being concerned about the threat of global warming is the same as being worried about whether it''s ...California Senate Race: Carly Fiorina, Climate Change and an Idiotic Ad. Politics Daily (blog) Carly Fiorina injects global warming into her race with Barbara Boxer. American Thinker (blog) You Think Carly Fiorina Gives a F* ck About Global Warming? SF Weekly (blog) Sacramento Beeall 82 |
5th June 2010 |
| US prepares for climate burden National summit paves way for concerted action on global warming. |
5th June 2010 |
| The real cost of cheap oil | John Vidal The Gulf disaster is only unusual for being so near the US. Elsewhere, Big Oil rarely cleans up its mess. Big Oil is holding its breath. BP''s shares are in steep decline after the debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. Barack Obama, the American people and the global environmental community are outraged, and now the company stands to lose the rights to drill for oil in the Arctic and other ecologically sensitive places. The gulf disaster may cost it a few billion dollars, but so what? When annual profits for a company often run to tens of billions, the cost of laying 5,000 miles of booms, or spraying millions of gallons of dispersants and settling 100,000 court cases is not much more than missing a few months' production. |
1st June 2010 |
| Could climate change and biodiversity of marine plankton in North Atlantic affect carbon cycle? Over the last decades, global warming has been accompanied by an increase in the taxonomic biodiversity of phytoplankton and zooplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean and a reduction in the average size of these organisms, according to researchers. They demonstrate that this structural modification of biological systems could bring about an alteration to the carbon sink in the North Atlantic and a ... |
1st June 2010 |
 Alarmist environmentalists - Toles |
1st June 2010 |
| What will it take to end our oil addiction? Energy economics expert Craig Severance has written a sequel to 'Peak oil production coming sooner than expected.' It''s time we moved on to something else, or this is going to kill us. Not only are world oil supplies running out, but what oil is still left is proving very dirty to obtain. We need to kick our oil addiction now if we expect to preserve any hopes of economic prosperity, or unspoiled habitats. 'This is What the End of the Oil Age Looks Like.' We have the Deepwater Horizon oil spill now precisely because the easy to obtain oil is already tapped. |
1st June 2010 |
| Climate Change : Robust Findings Image Credit : Skeptical. Science. com It should come as no surprise that the United Nations (under UNFCCC) commissioned a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), way back in 2007. The revelation is that very few people appear to have read any of it. So I thought I would present just a little about the 'robust findings' of Working Group 1 (WG1 or WGI) of the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). I think the IPCC''s science needs a wider public readership, and so I hope that this post in some way enables that. See also: Global Warming versus Climate Change Northern Summer's Here |
1st June 2010 |
| Rush for rare metals heats up around globe Global competition to secure rare metals is heating up, fueled by their use in green products and surging demand in emerging economies like China. Rare metals are essential for energy- saving products a strong area for Japan including hybrid vehicles, electric cars, air conditioners and vacuum cleaners with less power consumption, and light- emitting diode illumination, and demand for all of ... |
1st June 2010 |
| BP's behaviour in the Gulf is appalling. But our thirst for oil is the real issue Science will solve this crisis, but the real cause is America''s demands and our refusal to pay oil''s true price. As this piece is written, act one of the Gulf of Mexico tragedy continues, agonisingly, to unfold. We, the people of the region, keep hoping to leave behind the terrifying explosions and ghastly loss of human life, the dread invoked by black jets billowing endlessly from below and the floating oil spreading over an ever- growing area. We want to move on to act two, which will feature many dirty shovels, corpses of birds and people crying over the loss of a landscape they love. |
1st June 2010 |
| Cheap prices and high tax revenues underpin America's love of Big Oil Report into Minerals Management Service has bought time for US government but it remains in thrall to the oil industry. The American public have been told by government that oil industry regulation has been undermined by drugs, pornography and ethical transgression. But politicians in Washington are less keen to admit that they and the wider public have all allowed themselves to be seduced by the cheap petrol and tax provided by BP and the rest of Big Oil. The interior department has created good headlines and bought time for Barack Obama by releasing details of a report into the working of one of its own agencies, the Minerals Management Service. This review by the department''s acting inspector general, Mary Kendall, outlined how staff at the oil industry''s chief safety watchdog, MMS, accepted tickets to sporting events, lunches and hunting trips from oil and gas firms. It also spelled out incidents such ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Prices vs. contracts: Why good CO2 policy needs complex financial markets by Sean Casten. Economic theory is predicated on the thesis that if supply and demand are allowed to freely set the price for a given item, rational capital allocation (and a host of other social benefits) will follow. Much of public policy is predicated on the truth of that thsis. But there''s a problem with the thesis: price alone isn' t sufficient. A market that provides nothing more than a spot price for a given commodity is only a market in name. To have a real market of the kind that brings about all the good things that economic theory describes, we need a much richer, more complex suite of transactions. |
1st June 2010 |
| What Lies Beneath: An Interview with Permafrost Expert Larry Hinzman What Lies Beneath: An Interview with Permafrost Expert Larry Hinzman |
1st June 2010 |
| The Water Cost of Carbon Capture Despite all the talk of moving to greener energy sources, coal will be with us for the foreseeable future. Its just too cheap and plentiful. |
1st June 2010 |
| The World After Abundance By John Michael Greer. In the energy crisis of the Seventies, relatively simple conservation and efficiency measures, combined with lifestyle changes, sent world petroleum consumption down by 15% in a single decade and caused comparable drops in other energy sources across the industrial world. Most of these measures went out the window in the final binge of the age of cheap oil that followed, so theres plenty of low hanging fruit to pluck |
1st June 2010 |
| Air traffic poised to become a major factor in global warming, scientists predict The first new projections of future aircraft emissions in 10 years predict that carbon dioxide and other gases from air traffic will become a significant source of global warming as they double or triple by 2050. |
1st June 2010 |
| Washing Carbon Out Of The Air - preview The world cannot afford to dump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Yet it is not cutting back. All indications are that the concentration of CO 2 will continue to rise for decades. Despite great support for renewable energy, developed and developing countries will probably burn more oil, coal and natural gas in the future. For transportation, the alternatives to petroleum appear especially ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Geoengineering: 'A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come' Driving a Prius and putting up solar panels aren' t the only options for cooling the earth''s climate. More radical ideas include brightening clouds, creating giant algae blooms in the ocean and launching spacecraft to deploy giant sunshades. It might sound a bit far- fetched, but scientists are considering ideas like these -- known as geoengineering -- to alter the climate. |
1st June 2010 |
| 'Merchants of Doubt' delves into contrarian scientists - USA Today 'Merchants of Doubt' delves into contrarian scientists. USA Today. What Singer and Seitz did for tobacco, Nierenberg did for global warming. In 1995, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Why is climate change going down the political agenda? contribution by Climate Sock After a pause in hostilities for the election, it looks like the favourite climate story of the year has resurfaced. A new poll is out and being covered with the headline that fewer people now believe in climate change or think that it''s an urgent issue demanding attention. There''s some truth in the basic argument that people are now less convinced and worried about climate change than they have been in the past. But when the Guardian runs a story like this, it gets widely noticed and repeated, and there are several reasons why we shouldn' t get too carried away by the news. |
1st June 2010 |
| Washing Carbon Out Of The Air - preview The world cannot afford to dump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Yet it is not cutting back. All indications are that the concentration of CO 2 will continue to rise for decades. Despite great support for renewable energy, developed and developing countries will probably burn more oil, coal and natural gas in the future. For transportation, the alternatives to petroleum appear especially ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Geoengineering: 'A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come' Driving a Prius and putting up solar panels aren' t the only options for cooling the earth''s climate. More radical ideas include brightening clouds, creating giant algae blooms in the ocean and launching spacecraft to deploy giant sunshades. It might sound a bit far- fetched, but scientists are considering ideas like these -- known as geoengineering -- to alter the climate. |
1st June 2010 |
| The search for improved carbon sponges picks up speed (Phys. Org. com) -- A new class of materials with a record- shattering internal surface may have the right stuff to efficiently strip carbon dioxide from a power plant''s exhaust. Berkeley lab scientists hope to find out soon. |
1st June 2010 |
| I Believe: 'We need to move away from fossil fuels as an energy source' The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and growing awareness of global warming has underscored for many people that we need to move to energy sources other than oil and natural gas. |
1st June 2010 |
| A historic moment for anyone who cares about the environment History doesn' t always come in thunderclaps or cheering crowds, and yesterday it was made with very little outward fuss when a woman in a pale blue trouser suit got to her feet from a green leather bench and began to speak. It was precisely 3.30 in the afternoon, and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Hugh Bayley, had just issued a two- word invitation: "Caroline Lucas." And with that, the first MP of the Green Party, in fact the first MP of a new national party for many years, began her maiden speech and her party''s political life at Westminster. |
1st June 2010 |
| EU should impose 'carbon tax' on developing countries, study finds Brussels - The European Union should go ahead with plans to charge a carbon tax on developing countries which do not make efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a study released Monday said.... |
1st June 2010 |
| EU should impose 'carbon tax' on developing countries, study finds Brussels - The European Union should go ahead with plans to charge a carbon tax on developing countries which do not make efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a study released Monday said.... |
1st June 2010 |
| Millions face hunger in arid belt of Africa (AP) -- At this time of year, the Gadabeji Reserve should be refuge for the nomadic tribes who travel across a moonscape on the edge of the Sahara to graze their cattle. But the grass is meager after a drought killed off the last year''s crops. Now the cattle are too weak to stand and too skinny to sell, leaving the poor without any way to buy grain to feed their families. |
1st June 2010 |
| US faces rising heatwave and hurricane threats - Agrimoney.com US faces rising heatwave and hurricane threats. Agrimoney. com... seasons on record", and a growing likelihood of a La Nina weather pattern, which often spells a crop- damaging heatwave, official forecasts have warned. ...and more |
1st June 2010 |
| Expert warns of global warming threat to paddy - Myanmar Times Expert warns of global warming threat to paddy. Myanmar Times. By Than Htike Oo HOTTER weather brought on by climate change could decrease rice yields, especially for summer paddy, an official from the Myanmar Rice ...and more |
1st June 2010 |
| Heatwave forces cattle exodus from Rajasthan - Times of India Heatwave forces cattle exodus from Rajasthan. Times of India. JAISALMER: Continuing heatwave across swathes of Rajasthan has forced hundreds of cattle- rearers from Jaisalmer and Barmer to migrate to neighbouring states ...and more |
1st June 2010 |
| Summertime 2100, and the living isn't easy The year is 2100. Londoners and their guests need a pastiche of Arcadia in the heart of the capital. Peak summer daily temperatures are nearly seven degrees hotter than they were in 2000, and the city is far more crowded. By mid- afternoon the day''s heat is starting to hang heavy, and will not disperse until the small hours. Evenings are febrile and nights fitful. Shaded open spaces draw people out of doors like a magnet summoning iron filings. |
1st June 2010 |
| Government warns of worst hurricane season since 2005 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Atlantic storm season may be the most intense since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina killed over a thousand people after crashing through Gulf of Mexico energy facilities, the U. S. government''s top climate agency predicted on Thursday. |
1st June 2010 |
| Will REDD Preserve Forests Or Merely Provide a Fig Leaf? The tropical forest conservation plan, known as REDD, has the potential to significantly reduce deforestation and carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. But unless projects are carefully designed and monitored, the program could be undercut by shady dealings at all levels, from the forests to global carbon markets. BY FRED PEARCE |
1st June 2010 |
| CO2 Emissions Could Grow 43 Percent by 2035, New Projection Says If the world''s major nations fail to enact significant changes in energy and climate policies, global carbon dioxide emissions will increase 43 percent by 2035, according to the U. S. Energy Information Agency (EIA). In its annual long- term energy outlook, the EIA projected that global emissions from burning fossil fuels would grow from 29 billion tons in 2007 to 42 billion tons in 2035. The EIA said that most of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions will come from developing economies such as China, India, and Brazil, whose energy consumption is expected to nearly double in the next 25 years. |
1st June 2010 |
| Australia to miss emission reduction goals BRISBANE, Australia, May 27 (UPI) -- Australia''s Climate Change Department head Martin Parkinson warned that the nation will likely not meet its promised emission reduction targets. |
1st June 2010 |
| A new vision of climate change needed to combat skepticism Washington, May 28 : A British is looking into ways new 'visual strategies' can communicate climate change messages against a backdrop of increased climate scepticism. |
1st June 2010 |
| Global Carbon Market Grows to $144 Billion Despite Financial and Economic Turmoil World Bank Releases 2010 State and Trends of the Carbon Market Report |
1st June 2010 |
| Rising Temperatures Red Constantino blogs about matters of dollars and thermometers, and the organizational pains plaguing the newly- created Philippine Climate Change Commission. |
1st June 2010 |
| Why has a Newsweek economics editor, Stefan Theil, written 'basically a condensed version of the climate denier viewpoint'? - Bickering and defensive, Newsweek reporters have lost the public's trust. Another week, another staggering journalistic lapse in climate science reporting at a once- great media outlet. How bad is 'Uncertain Science,' by Stefan Theil, European economics editor for the near- dead newsweekly? I asked Dr. Robert J. Brulle for a comment, and the Drexel University 'expert on environmental communications,' wrote me back: This article is basically a condensed version of the climate denier viewpoint. Mr. Theil significantly distorts the situation, and grossly fails to ground his story in the actual facts, all to support his biased position. Obviously, Newsweek doesn' t have any fact- checking capability. How this counts as journalism is beyond me. |
1st June 2010 |
| We Need an 'Emergency Mobilization' to Fight Climate Change: So Where's the Support for the Kerry-Lieberman Bill? Perhaps the reason that the environmental lobby is putting up a lackadaisical fight for Kerry- Lieberman is simply that the bill isn' t really worth fighting for. |
1st June 2010 |
| 'Climate change is a long struggle' Global warming has always energised Hay audiences " but this year the mood is much more sober. For the past four or five years, one theme burned through discussions at Hay more than most: climate change, and the large and small things human beings might do to tackle it. Politicians " including, most famously, Al Gore " arrived here to talk up their ecological credentials, green authors warned the crowds of the doom that may await us, and everyone lapped it up. Moreover, with the Copenhagen summit coming into view, last year''s environmental sessions had an infectious mixture of trepidation and momentum, as they focused on The Big Question ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Death and devastation - and it's just the start It could take months or years for the true impact of the spill on surrounding ecosystems to emerge. The White House says the BP oil spill is probably the greatest environmental disaster the US has faced, but the true impact on surrounding ecosystems could take months or even years to emerge. Experts say the unprecedented depth of the spill, combined with the use of chemicals that broke the oil down before it reached the surface, pose an unknown threat."It''s difficult to marshal resources to do a thorough job of charting what the impacts are," Jeffrey Short, an environmental chemist who worked on the effects of the Exxon Valdez spill, told Nature magazine. |
1st June 2010 |
| Presence of world leaders 'paralysed' climate summit, UN letter claims United Nations climate chief says Danish presidency''s backing for US also derailed Copenhagen negotiationsA leaked letter from the United Nations' climate chief suggests the Copenhagen climate summit failed because the presence of 130 world leaders paralysed decision- making and the Danish presidency backed the US and other western nations over the interests of the poor. The revelations " made as the UN climate talks resume in Bonn tomorrow " come in Yvo de Boer''s candid letter, written to colleagues days after the summit broke up in acrimony in December. More than 130 world leaders had been persuaded by Britain and other countries to go to Denmark, where they were expected to put the finishing touches to a historic global agreement to limit carbon emissions, protect forests and put in place a mechanism to transfer billions of dollars from rich to poor countries each year. |
1st June 2010 |
| UK Royal Society revives confusion as US concludes climate change certainty Just as leading US experts give their clearest warning about emissions, 43 UK scientists prompt Royal Society to rethink Government''s chief scientific adviser hits out at climate sceptics. Two weeks ago, the United States National Academy of Sciences published its clearest ever report on the science of climate change. It concluded: "Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems."Over recent years, particularly during the George W Bush administration, the academy has faced great challenges in presenting the science of climate change to domestic policymakers, many of whom have been in denial about the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions. But with Barack Obama in the White House, the academy has been more able to offer scientific advice that some politicians may find inconvenient. So it is ironic that just as the leading scientists in the US ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Innovation: Bringing biogas to book Methane capture technology could have a dramatic impact on global warming. But developing such technologies won' t be easy |
1st June 2010 |
| Study finds reforestation may lower the climate change mitigation potential of forests Scientists at the University of Oklahoma and the Fudan University in Shanghai, China, have found that reforestation and afforestation -- the creation of new forests -- may lower the potential of forests for climate change lessening. |
1st June 2010 |
| Solar incentives may fall A local man who sells photovoltaic solar systems wants people to know Public Service Company of New Mexico may change its policy regarding how customers are credited for solar power they put into the grid. |
1st June 2010 |
| Bonn climate change talks aim to pick up the pieces from Copenhagen A FRESH round of UN climate change talks got under way in Bonn yesterday in an effort to pick up the pieces after last Decembers summit in Copenhagen and pave the way for firmer action. |
1st June 2010 |
| Fears Grow over Oil Spill's Long-Term Effects on Food Chain ATLANTA, Georgia, May 31 (IPS/ IFEJ) - As oil continues gushing from the ocean floor into the Gulf of Mexico, with no sign of stopping until a new well is finished this August, scientists, environmentalists and local residents are beginning to reckon with the reality of a massive annihilation of sea creatures and wildlife. |
1st June 2010 |
| Climate talks kick off with squabbling in Germany A new round of climate negotiations kicked off in Germany on Monday with squabbling over money and procedural questions that could threaten progress at the two- week U. N. conference. Climate change - Germany - Post- Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions - Environment - Activism |
1st June 2010 |
| The Man Who Wants to Northern Rock the Planet Matt Ridley''s irrational theories remain unchanged by his own disastrous experiment. |
1st June 2010 |
| Spill brings more urgency As the BP oil spill destroys natures delicate balance in and along the Gulf of Mexico, it may also upset an uneasy political balance in Congress one that supports badly needed legislation to move the nation toward a cleaner, sustainable energy future. |
1st June 2010 |
| Can We Do Better at Managing Rare, Big Risks? Can humans overcome traits that lead to well blowouts and other foreseen disasters? |
1st June 2010 |
| Why Science Needs to Step Up Its PR Game - Wired News Wired News. Why Science Needs to Step Up Its PR Game. Wired News. You know there is a problem with climate change / global warming theory when all the solutions are increased taxes. As another commenter has said adaptation ...And then there were three: Britain''s Royal Society rejects alarmism. Financial Post. Royal Society and climate change. Times Online. Why do we argue about climate change? Record- Searchlight (blog) all 4 |
1st June 2010 |
| Oxfam warns of climate debt with WB climate aid Oxfam International has warned that the $100 billion a year pledged by rich nations to help fight climate change could fail the poorest people if recent moves to deliver climate cash as loans continue. |
1st June 2010 |
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| ACTION: 10:10 - 10% of emissions by 2010 Please join 10:10 today. By committing to cut your emissions by 10% in 2010, you will join thousanfont-ds of individuals, schools, hospitals, businesses and organisations all actively helping to combat climate change by making simple changes to their lifestyles, homes and workplaces. More importantly, your voice will help to put pressure on the politicians to cut Britain’s emissions as quickly as the science demands. If we in the UK can prove that fast, deep cuts can be made at a national level, then we may just inspire all the other big polluting countries to follow suit. |
| STICKY: Why politicians dare not limit economic growth - New Scientist Visceral fear is not without foundation. If we do not go out shopping, then factories stop producing, and if factories stop producing then people get laid off. If people get laid off, then they do not have any money. And if they don't have any money they cannot go shopping. A falling economy has no money in the public purse and no way to service public debt. It struggles to maintain competitiveness and it puts people's jobs at risk. A government that fails to respond appropriately will soon find itself out of office. This is the logic of free-market capitalism: the economy must grow continuously or face an unpalatable collapse. With the environmental situation reaching crisis point, however, it is time to stop pretending that mindlessly chasing economic growth is compatible with sustainability. We need something more robust than a comfort blanket to protect us from the damage we are wreaking on the planet. Figuring out an alternative to this doomed model is now a priority before a global recession, an unstable climate, or a combination of the two forces itself upon us. |
| ACTION: 350.org If we don't get our Co2 level down to 350 parts per million we're all going to be toast. Bill McKibben of Step It Up wants this magic number to be imprinted, implanted, implaneted and indelibly fused into the minds of everyone on this planet. If you're on side visit www.350.org |
| The Climate Safety report is now available for free download from :- http://www.climatesafety.org http://climatesafety.org/downloads/climatesafety.pdf |
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