Another Week in the Ecological Crisis, January 19, 2014

Featured image is one of 19 illustrated haiku laying out the IPCC Summary for Policy Makers, see them all here.
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week’s Global Warming news roundup

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Sipping from the Internet Firehose…

January 19, 2014

Chuckles, COP20+, WG3 Leak, BP EO, Matthews, Risky Biz, Vortices
Warnings, Energiewende, Bottom Line, EcoCrime, Cook, Shrinkology
Fukushima: Note, News, Policies
Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, GMOs, Production
Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather
GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Volcanoes, Temperatures, Satellites
Futures, Attribution, Oceans, Biosphere, Extinctions, Bees & CCD
Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Disease, Smog & Health, Phenology
Wildfires, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
Transportation, Buildings, Geoengineering, Restoration, Adaptation
Journals, Other Docs, Orgs, DIY, Models, Free Science, Hansen, Dessler, Leibo, Mann
International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Hormuz, South China Sea, Malvinas, Panama Canals
Treaties, Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Divestment, Polls, H2O Biz, Education
National Politics: Britain, Europe, Australia, Abbott, Tennis, MDBP, India, China, Japan, Africa, South America
Canada, Libricide, Strahl, Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan, Young, Doer, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Maritimes
America, Keystone, Birth Control, Sequestration, West Virginia, Joisy Guv, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
Ecological Economics, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts, BP Trial
Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Transportation, Peak Oil, Biofuel
Wind, Solar, Nukes, Grid, Utilities, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
Other Lists, Carbon Lobby, PRP, Intimidation, Inaction, Miscellaneous, Useful Links
Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig

Laugh. I dare ya:

Here’s your touch of surreal for the week:

2014/01/18: TMoS: This You Have to See. Sunrise Over Tiananmen.

Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Marshall Islands President pleads for action on climate change
- 2014/01/15: RTCC: World’s richest nations ‘failing’ to address climate change
  The world’s richest countries have made some progress since the 1990s in limiting environmental damage. But they have not done enough to prevent catastrophic climate change, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Another leaked IPCC draft report. This time WG3 – Mitigation:
- 2014/01/17: Guardian(UK): UN climate report urges quicker switch to low-carbon global economy
  Emissions still increasing, according to leaked IPCC findings, with urgent action required to avert worst effects
- 2014/01/17: TMoS: IPCC Warns It’s Now or Never
- 2014/01/17: RTCC: Leaked UN climate report calls for rapid switch to clean energy
  Limiting global warming to safe levels could cost 4% of global output [by 2030] says study, warning emissions must drop 40-70%
- 2014/01/17: BBC: The level of greenhouse gases is rising rapidly and far greater global efforts are needed to tackle the issue, a leaked [IPCC draft WG3] report has warned
- 2014/01/17: GEP: IPCC Acknowledges Likely Need for CDR, Al Gore Unloads
- 2014/01/16: NYT: Climate Aids in Study Face Big Obstacles
BP released their Energy Outlook 2014 this week:
- BP: Energy Outlook
  The BP Energy Outlook identifies long-term energy trends, and then develops projections for world energy markets to 2035
- 2014/01/17: CleanTechnica: BP Energy Outlook Predict Emissions To Soar 29% By 2030
- 2014/01/17: WNN: BP sees modest growth in nuclear energy
  Global nuclear power use will grow 1.9% annually up to 2035, according to oil and gas giant BP. However, carbon dioxide emissions are seen to increase by almost 30% over that period.
- 2014/01/16: NBF: BP projects world economy and energy to 2035
- 2014/01/15: BBerg: U.S. Will Be Energy Self-Sufficient by 2035 on Shale, BP Says
- 2014/01/15: BBC: BP forecasts slower growth in global energy demand
The implicit attribution of blame in the Matthews paper caught some offstride:
- 2014/01/15: ERL: National contributions to observed global warming by H Damon Matthews et al.
- 2014/01/17: Salon: These 7 countries are responsible for over 60 percent of global warming
- 2014/01/17: RTCC: UK has made largest contribution to global warming says study
  Based on size of population, Britain is a world leader in greenhouse gas emissions, due to its historic use of coal The UK is more responsible for global warming than any other country – if global carbon dioxide emissions are based on the number of people per country.
A group of US billionaires has set up Risky Business to evaluate the climate change risks to business:
- Risky Business — The Economic Risks of Climate Change in the United States
- 2014/01/13: RTCC: US heavyweights unite to establish economic cost of climate change
  Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer and Hank Paulson have teamed up to put a price tag on the climate impacts in the US Ten of America’s leading politicians and businessmen are collaborating on a project that will map out the economic impacts of climate change on the USA.
- 2014/01/13: TP:JR: A Massive New Assessment Of Climate Change’s Economic Risks Is Ready For Business
More vortices:
- 2014/01/17: CBC: Polar vortex returning to northern Ontario
- 2014/01/17: TMoS: It’s Back to the Polar Vortex Penalty Box for You Easterners
- 2014/01/17: Salon: Brace yourself: The polar vortex is coming back
- 2014/01/15: CSW: Unleash John Holdren — beyond the Polar Vortex video
- 2014/01/14: PSinclair: CBC: Mike Mann on the Vortex
- 2014/01/14: PSinclair: Weather Channel: Vortex Post Mortem
- 2014/01/13: MStrassler: Polar Vortex, Climate Change, Red Herring?
What do we have for warnings this week?
- 2014/01/13: TBAS: Five minutes is too close
- 2014/01/16: RTCC: Climate and nuclear threats leave world ‘five minutes to midnight’ – say the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
- 2014/01/14: Eureka: Top scientists ask UN leaders to act on nuclear weapons, climate change
How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?
- 2014/01/17: GET: BDEW Presents Electricity and Gas Data for 2013 and Calls for More Cost Efficiency of Renewables Law
- 2014/01/15: GET: Possible Timetable for Speedy Reform of Renewables Law
- 2014/01/13: GET: Germany on Track for Solar Target Corridor in 2013 – 219 MWp Added in November
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2014/01/17: Wunderground: Earth’s Record 41 Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters of 2013
- 2014/01/16: RTCC: Fund managers who ignore climate risk breaching ‘fiduciary duty’ -UNFCCC head, Christiana Figueres
- 2014/01/16: Guardian(UK): High-stakes climate poker
  The fossil fuel industry is betting that we’ll keep pumping it money instead of paying less to switch to renewable energy
The world inches toward creating a global legal framework for ecological crime:
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2014/01/18: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #3 by John Hartz
- 2014/01/17: SkS: Australia’s hottest year was no freak event: humans caused it by dana1981
- 2014/01/16: SkS: James Byrne: High-stakes climate poker by dana1981
- 2014/01/15: SkS: Heat widget viewed more than one million times at over 60 blogs by Bob Lacatena
- 2014/01/14: SkS: Mitigation Mosaic: How small steps can make a difference by BaerbelW
- 2014/01/12: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly Digest #2 by John Hartz
Various psychological angles arise in considerations of the ecological crisis:
- 2014/01/13: RTCC: Public’s climate change concerns ‘shaped by weather outside’
- 2014/01/12: SciAm: Cold Outside? Forecast Calls for an Uptick in Global Warming Disbelief
  The temperature outside governs most people’s response to climate change. David Biello reports
- 2014/01/12: Discovery: How Weather Messes With Our Global Warming Opinions
A note on theFukushima disaster:

It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.]
And the IAEA is now saying 40 years too.
[Now some people are talking about a century or more. Sealing it in concrete for 500 years.]
We’ll see.
At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
Meanwhile…
It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
Do they have an agenda?
Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
Do they want to write a good news story?
Do they want to write a bad news story?
Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:
- 2014/01/17: FukuLeaks: Fukushima News Roundup
- 2014/01/17: FukuLeaks: Alaska & Washington Salmon Tested For Radiation
- 2014/01/17: DemNow: Mayor of Town That Hosted Fukushima Nuclear Plant Says He Was Told: “No Accident Could Ever Happen”
- 2014/01/17: DemNow: Volunteers Crowdsource Radiation Monitoring to Map Potential Risk on Every Street in Japan
- 2014/01/16: Guardian(UK): Fukushima is an ongoing warning to the world on nuclear energy
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: Japanese Government Approves Revival Plan For Owner Of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
- 2014/01/15: EneNews: Officials want data on U.S. Navy sailors Fukushima exposure — Defense Dept. directed to reveal all medical problems for USS Reagan crew…
- 2014/01/15: DemNow: For Fukushima’s Displaced, a Struggle to Recover Lives Torn Apart by Nuclear Disaster
- 2014/01/15: CleanTechnica: Fukushima Fuel Transfer Reaches 10% Milestone
- 2014/01/15: FukuLeaks: US Congress Requests Data From USS Ronald Reagan Fukushima Response
- 2014/01/15: FukuLeaks: Two New Pacific Radiation Monitoring Programs Launch
- 2014/01/14: NavyTimes: Lawmakers seek data on sailors’ exposure to Fukushima radiation
  House and Senate lawmakers want answers on whether U.S. sailors received high doses of radiation while supporting humanitarian operations in Japan following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. In the fiscal 2014 omnibus budget bill, lawmakers direct Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson to provide Congress a full accounting of those who served on the carrier Ronald Reagan during the operation and any medical problems they later developed.
- 2014/01/14: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Groundwater Well Hits 2.4 Million bq/liter
- 2014/01/14: FukuLeaks: Unit 4 Spent Fuel Transfers Now At 154 Assemblies
- 2014/01/14: EneNews: TV: Fukushima confirms nightmarish potential of nuclear power; Public living with threat of worst-case scenarios on daily basis…
- 2014/01/13: FukuLeaks: Fukushima News Roundup
- 2014/01/13: LBL: Berkeley Lab and Cal State Long Beach Researchers Launch ‘Kelp Watch’ to Determine Extent of Fukushima Contamination
- 2014/01/13: CDreams: Radioactive Fish at 124 Times ‘Safe’ Levels Caught Near Fukushima
- 2014/01/12: Asahi: Maki Okubo: ‘We’ve been lied to,’ said ex-Prime Minister Koizumi
- 2014/01/12: CDreams: Toll of U.S. Sailors Devastated by Fukushima Radiation Continues to Climb
  […]
  with U.S. support, Japan has imposed a state secrets act severely restricting reliable news reporting from the Fukushima site. So now we all live in the same kind of dark that enveloped the USS Reagan while its crew was immersed in their mission of mercy.
- 2014/01/12: TheCanadian: Fukushima water decontamination system breaks down
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
- 2014/01/17: DemNow: “We Want to Fight For This Cause”: Nuclear Refugees from Fukushima Join Anti-Nuke Protests
- 2014/01/17: DemNow: Protests Grow in Japan: “We Want to Bring Our Message to the World to Stop Nuclear Power Plants”
- 2014/01/15: DemNow: From Atomic Bombings to Fukushima, Japan Pursues a Nuclear Future Despite a Devastating Past
The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:
- 2014/01/16: OSC: Arctic cyclones more common than previously thought
- 2014/01/15: ASI: Bromine, chlorine and mercury
- 2014/01/13: ASI: Cracks and the mobility of ice in the Beaufort
- 2014/01/12: Dosbat: ASCAT January 2014
- 2014/01/12: Eureka: High levels of molecular chlorine found in arctic atmosphere
That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:
- 2014/01/16: ArcticNews: High methane levels over the Arctic Ocean on January 14, 2014
- 2014/01/14: RScribbler: Beneath the Cracking, Melting Ice, the Arctic Methane Monster Continues its Ominous Rumbling
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2014/01/16: FuelFix: Feds ask Shell for assurances on Arctic drilling
While in Antarctica:
- 2014/01/18: TMoS: Your Daily Apocalypto
- 2014/01/17: PeakEnergy: Pine Island Glacier melting past ‘the point of no return’
- 2014/01/16: UNL: ANDRILL team discovers ice-loving sea anemones in Antarctica
- 2014/01/16: ERabett: Nathan Drake vs., Steve McIntyre on the Spirit of Mawson Matter
- 2014/01/15: NatureN: Researchers question rescued polar expedition — Australian Antarctic Division says it did not approve research strategy of stricken mission
- 2014/01/15: ERabett: Cue The Heavy Breathing
- 2014/01/15: RScribbler: Scientists: Warming Ocean, Upwelling to Make an End to Antarctica’s Vast Pine Island Glacier
- 2014/01/14: Tamino: Southern Discomfort
- 2014/01/14: BBC: Pine Island Glacier’s retreat ‘irreversible’
- 2014/01/14: MODIS: Iceberg [B-31] from Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica [on Jan.5]
- 2014/01/13: TheConversation: New behaviour leaves Antarctic penguins on the shelf
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): Giant Antarctic glacier beyond point of no return
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2014/01/15: Oxfam: [link to 109k pdf] Dutch beat French and Swiss to top Oxfam’s new global food table
- 2014/01/17: BBerg: Extreme Weather Wreaking Havoc on Food as Farmers Suffer
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Heatwave hits crops, milk production
- 2014/01/16: AllAfrica:SW Radio: Zimbabwe: Nation Faces Hunger As UN Cuts Food Aid
- 2014/01/15: EurActiv: New global food table: Europe feasts while Africa fasts
  Three northern European countries enjoy the planet’s cheapest, healthiest and most plentiful diets according to a new Oxfam ‘Good Enough to Eat’ index, while three African countries have the worst. The Netherlands is the best food performer in the global food table – followed closely by France and Switzerland – while at the other end, Chad is 125th in the rankings, below Ethiopia and Angola.
- 2014/01/14: TreeHugger: Peak Water and Food Scarcity by Lester Brown
- 2014/01/14: PortSide: California Drought Threatens Farmers, Ag Workers, Cities — and You
  Driest conditions in 100 years could hit the nation’s food basket hard, affecting half of US fruits and vegetables.
- 2014/01/14: CDreams: Major California Drought Could Spell ‘Catastrophe’ for Nation’s Food Supply
- 2014/01/14: Grist: Tree disease is threatening orange juice
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Increasing heatwaves threaten farming
  A climate scientist says farmers need more help to adapt to heatwaves. The head of the Centre of Excellence for Climate Science at the University of NSW, Professor Andy Pitman, says climate change is driving up temperatures much faster than was predicted. He says scientists might have been too conservative about how fast the climate is changing, because the heatwaves appear to be hotter and are lasting longer.
- 2014/01/13: WFP: WFP Expands Assistance To South Sudanese, Condemns Looting Of Supplies
- 2014/01/13: UN: Hunger looms in South Sudan as fighting threatens to disrupt agriculture, UN warns
The state of the world’s fisheries is a concern. See also:
- 2014/01/16: Grist: Pebble Mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay could be environmentally devastating, EPA says
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): 10 million dollar investment in Tasmanian salmon
  Within weeks Huon Aquaculture is to start a $10 million expansion of its salmon processing plant at Parramatta Creek in Northern Tasmania to make value added seafood products.
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: EPA: Pebble Mine Means ‘Long-Term Risk To Salmon, Wildlife, And Native Alaska Cultures’
- 2014/01/15: AP: EPA: Mining poses risks to Bristol Bay salmon
  A government report indicates a large-scale copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region could have devastating effects on the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and adversely affect Alaska Natives, whose culture is built around salmon. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released its final assessment of the impact of mining in the Bristol Bay region. Its findings are similar to those of an earlier draft report, concluding that, depending on the size of the mine, up to 94 miles of streams would be destroyed in the mere build-out of the project, including losses of between 5 and 22 miles of streams known to provide salmon spawning and rearing habitat. Up to 5,350 acres of wetlands, ponds and lakes also would be lost due to the mine footprint. The report concludes that “large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay watershed poses significant near- and long-term risk to salmon, wildlife and Native Alaska cultures,” EPA regional administrator Dennis McLerran said in a conference call with reporters.
- 2014/01/14: UKISS: Overfishing doesn’t just shrink fish populations — they often don’t recover afterwards
Food Prices are still problematic:
- FAO: World Food Situation – Food Price Indices
- 2014/01/17: EurActiv: EU moves to curb food price bets by traders
  The European Union has voted through rules to limit the ability of banks and hedge funds to bet on food prices. Arlene McCarthy, a Labour MEP for the north-west, said the new rules, known as Mifid, would “curb speculation and help decrease price volatility and inflation” which had a “devastating impact on poor and food dependent countries”. “For the first time the EU will regulate commodities to tackle food speculation,” she said. McCarthy said the rules would establish “an effective system of limits on the positions taken by financial players to curb speculation and help decrease price volatility and inflation of staple foods and other commodities”. The new rules, which have to be ratified by individual nation states, come after a series of high profile stories detailing the millions banks, hedge funds and commodity traders have made from betting on the price of food.
- 2014/01/16: RT: UK worsens global hunger crisis by ‘blocking reforms on food speculation’
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2014/01/17: CDreams: Calls Intensify for Obama to Fulfill Campaign Promise on GMO Labeling
- 2014/01/16: CDreams: Is the USDA Really Dumb Enough To Approve Agent Orange Corn?
- 2014/01/16: RetractionWatch: Journal editor defends retraction of GMO-rats study while authors reveal some of paper’s history
- 2014/01/14: TreeHugger: Modern Farmer explains why there are no GMO oats
- 2014/01/13: CDreams: Supreme Court Sides With ‘Notorious Patent Bully Monsanto’
And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?
- 2014/01/18: NBF: Vertical Farming getting more energy with 68 percent efficient LEDs
- 2014/01/17: UN: Healthy and sustainable food systems key to fighting hunger, UN agency says
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Things to consider in your extended drought plan
- 2014/01/14: Grist: Fungi could help boost crops and slow global warming
- 2014/01/13: NBF: India’s government is guaranteeing 800 million people about 5 kilograms of subsidized food per month for each person
- 2014/01/13: BBC: China cloning on an ‘industrial scale’
  You hear the squeals of the pigs long before reaching a set of long buildings set in rolling hills in southern China. Feeding time produces a frenzy as the animals strain against the railings around their pens. But this is no ordinary farm. Run by a fast-growing company called BGI, this facility has become the world’s largest centre for the cloning of pigs. The technology involved is not particularly novel – but what is new is the application of mass production.
- 2014/01/13: CBC: Food of the future: Bugs, seaweed and vertical farms
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): Family farming vital to ensure world food security
In the Western Pacific, Lingling has been circling East of the Philippines, soaking the Southern islands in the process:
- 2014/01/19: ABC(Au): Death toll from Philippines storm climbs to 40
  The death toll from the first storm to batter the disaster-prone Philippines this year has climbed to 40, officials said, as forecasters warned more heavy rain was on its way. “Lingling” – a tropical depression – has wreaked havoc across the southern island of Mindanao, affecting more than 580,000 people, 161,000 of whom have been displaced and moved to evacuation centres.
- 2014/01/19: al Jazeera: Torrential rain continues in the Philippines
  More severe weather is expected as Tropical Cyclone Lingling forms to east of the country.
- 2014/01/16: al Jazeera: Floods and landslides hit the Philippines
  Images of the latest round of storms to strike the southern Philippines
- 2014/01/16: NASA: NASA Sees Deadly System 91W Still Soaking Philippines
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Death toll from Philippine floods, landslides rises
- 2014/01/13: Wunderground: Category 4 Ian Pounds Tonga; 91W Kills 20 in Philippines; First Tornadoes of 2014
- 2014/01/12: al Jazeera: Heavy rains trigger landslides in Philippines
  At least six people killed and thousands forced to evacuate low-lying southern villages.
Earlier in the Western Pacific, Tropical Cyclone Ian zapped the Tongan Islands:
2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Charity to deliver aid to remote Tongan islands hit by Cyclone Ian
2014/01/16: MODIS: Tropical Cyclone Ian (07P) over the Tonga Islands, Pacific Ocean [on Jan.6]
2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Relief distribution still a challenge on Tonga’s islands
2014/01/15: WSWS: Tongan cyclone leaves thousands homeless
Emergency officials in Tonga have reported that 70 percent of homes and buildings in the country’s northern Ha’apai group of islands were either damaged or wiped out by Cyclone Ian, which hit last weekend. Cyclone Ian is the worst storm to hit the tiny impoverished Pacific country in more than 50 years.
2014/01/13: NASA: NASA’s Infrared Satellite Imagery Shows Wind Shear Affecting Cyclone Ian

Also in the Western Pacific, Tropical Cyclone June threatened New Caledonia:
- 2014/01/18: ABC(Au): Cyclone alert lifted in New Caledonia’s northern province
  An alert in parts of New Caledonia has been lifted, with Cyclone June downgraded to a Tropical Depression as it continues to weaken.
- 2014/01/17: NASA: NASA Satellite Watches Southern Pacific Birth Tropical Cyclone June
In the South Indian Ocean, 09S spun up between Madagascar and the African shore:
2014/01/16: NASA: NASA Catches Development of Tropical Cyclone 09S in Southern Indian Ocean

Earlier in the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Colin headed South and dissipated:
2014/01/14: NASA: NASA Sees Tropical Cyclone Colin Coming “Unwound”
2014/01/13: NASA: NASA Adds Up Tropical Cyclone Colin’s Rainfall Rates

While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
2014/01/16: UN: Philippines: UN humanitarian chief urges donors to increase aid for typhoon recovery
2014/01/17: TruthDig: Worse Cyclones Will Hit East Asia
2014/01/16: ERW: Tropical cyclone threat in East Asia has grown
2014/01/16: NASA: NASA Satellite Imagery Shows Some Punch Left in System 94S
2014/01/15: RawStory: Researchers confirm: Warmer Pacific Ocean has increased cyclone risk for China, Japan and Korea
2014/01/14: PSinclair: Tropical Storm Forming? In January?
2014/01/14: NASA: NASA Sees Rainfall from System 94S Over Australia’s Arnhem Region
2014/01/14: ERW: Insight: Cyclone Monica’s ecological consequences [in 2006]
2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Northern Kimberley on cyclone watch
2014/01/13: ABC(Au): Top End on cyclone watch
2014/01/12: RTCC: UN calls for more funding for Philippines survivors of Typhoon Haiyan

This week in notable weather:
- 2014/01/18: TMoS: This Is a New One for Me – ‘air stagnation alert’
- 2014/01/16: TreeHugger: While the Polar Vortex was hitting America, a record heatwave was making bats fall from trees in Australia
- 2014/01/15: CBC: 120 km/h winds, record warmth bring thaw to Edmonton
This week in the New Normal — extreme weather:
- 2014/01/18: PSinclair: Extreme Weather Impacts Accelerating
- 2014/01/17: RScribbler: This is What Human-Caused Climate Change Looks Like: Arctic to Warm, West Coast to Bake, Polar Vortex to Collapse and Flood Eastern US With Arctic Air
- 2014/01/14: PSinclair: January 2014: From Vortex to Whiplash
- 2014/01/13: PSinclair: Climate whiplash Impacts US, UK as well
- 2014/01/13: AFTIC: Peter Sinclair’s new video on extreme weather, jet stream and polar vortex
Rossby Waves? Blocking Patterns? Arctic Oscillation? What is the Arctic melt doing to our weather?
- 2014/01/18: ArcticNews: Our New Climate and Weather
- 2014/01/17: PSinclair: Fire and Ice: Jet Stream Continues Stubborn Behavior
- 2014/01/16: RScribbler: Mangled Jet Stream Sparks Drought, Winter Wildfires in Southern California — Colby Fire Explodes to Nearly 2000 Acres in One Day
- 2014/01/14: Wunderground:RR: Are the changes in the Arctic messing with our weather? Background
Meanwhile on the GHG front:
- 2014/01/17: Grist: D.C. is leaking more methane than a burpy cow
- 2014/01/15: Concordia: Global warming’s biggest offenders
  The U.S. and China are among the 7 countries most accountable for the world’s temperature increase, according to a new Concordia study When it comes to global warming, there are seven big contributors: the United States, China, Russia, Brazil, India, Germany and the United Kingdom. A new study published in Environmental Research Letters reveals that these countries were collectively responsible for more than 60 per cent of pre-2005 global warming. Uniquely, it also assigns a temperature change value to each country that reflects its contribution to observed global warming.
- 2014/01/15: Guardian(UK): BP study predicts greenhouse emissions will rise by almost a third in 20 years
  Energy firm’s analysis finds switch to other fuels like shale gas will do little to cut carbon emissions
- 2014/01/15: RNE: Graph of the Day: US energy emissions rise in 2013
- 2014/01/14: Guardian(UK): Canada’s carbon emissions projected to soar by 2030
  Tar sands expected to help drive 38% increase in emissions, Harper government admits in submission to the UN
- 2014/01/13: QuarkSoup: US CO2 Emissions Reverses Trend in 2013
- 2014/01/13: RTCC: US carbon emissions rose 2% in 2013
- 2014/01/13: TP:JR: [US] Natural Gas Prices, Coal Use, And Carbon Pollution Jumped In 2013
- 2014/01/13: RScribbler: World CO2 Levels Dangerously High: January Sees 399.5 ppm in First Week, Could Crack 400 Before Month-End
- 2014/01/13: ICN: U.S. Carbon Emissions From Fossil Fuels Rose in 2013 as Coal Use Ticked Up
  The 2 percent rise in energy-related CO2 emissions marks a shift from five years of declining emissions amid the economic recession.
And in the carbon cycle:
- 2014/01/16: Grist: Just add compost: How to turn your grassland ranch into a carbon sink
What’s up with volcanoes this week?
- 2014/01/19: IOTD: Roiling Ash Plume above Sinabung Volcano [On Jan.16]
- 2014/01/17: MODIS: Vog from Ambrym Volcano, Vanuatu [on Jan.7]
As for the temperature record:
- 2014/01/18: TMoS: You May Think It’s Been a Cold Year, But Nah! 2013 Fourth Warmest.
- 2014/01/16: ATTPh: The missing heat
- 2014/01/15: NatureN: Climate change: The case of the missing heat
  Sixteen years into the mysterious ‘global-warming hiatus’, scientists are piecing together an explanation.
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Record breaking temperatures for SA
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): South-east Australia sizzles as heatwave takes hold – Temperatures in Adelaide hit 44.5C
- 2014/01/12: RealEconomics: It was 42Â°F today in southern Minnesota
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
Every once in a while, someone reaches for a deep time perspective:
- 2014/01/12: QuarkSoup: Climate Change: The Next 10,000 Years
In the attribution debate:
- 2014/01/16: EarthMag: Humans are influencing some extreme weather events, but not all
What’s the State of the Oceans?:
- 2014/01/14: EneNews: “They’re All Gone”: Shock as sardines vanish off California – Fishermen didn’t find a single one all summer…
- 2014/01/13: PressTelegram: Sardine vanish off the coast; squid and anchovy fill the void for fishermen
- 2014/01/13: TP:JR: Are Warmer Waters Causing Starfish to Disintegrate?
What’s new in Biodiversity?
- 2014/01/17: Eureka: A new toad from the ‘warm valleys’ of Peruvian Andes
- 2014/01/16: Eureka: Loss of biodiversity limits toxin degradation
And on the extinction watch:
- 2014/01/19: UKISS: habitat is the key
- 2014/01/17: BBC: Worst year ever for SA rhino poaching
- 2014/01/17: CBC: Rhino death toll in South Africa topped 1,000 last year
- 2014/01/16: BBC: US black rhino hunter Corey Knowlton faces death threats
- 2014/01/16: TreeHugger: “Catastrophic collapse” in the number of lions in West Africa to 400 could lead to extinction
- 2014/01/16: SciAm:EC: From Saved to Stolen: Thief Absconds with Extinct-in-the-Wild Water Lily
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): West African lion facing extinction
- 2014/01/14: BBC: Lions ‘facing extinction in West Africa’
  There has been a “catastrophic collapse” in the number of lions in West Africa, with only around 400 left in the region, a new survey suggests.
- 2014/01/14: Guardian(UK): Dog virus threatens India’s dwindling tiger population
  Canine distemper virus, common in dogs and deadly to other carnivores, has killed at least four tigers in past year
- 2014/01/13: CBC: India’s tigers dying amid canine virus outbreak — At least 4 carcasses positive for canine distemper virus
- 2014/01/13: GLaden: Killing The Namibian Black Rhino for $350,000
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): Climate change threatens native eucalyptus species with extinction, Queensland study finds
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): Fears for the Tasmanian devil survival program, as another funding request is rejected
The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant concern. And then, there are the Neonicotinoids:
- 2014/01/15: Geek: Scientists glue sensors to 5,000 bees in a bid to better understand them
- 2014/01/13: TreeHugger: Uh oh. Britain only has 25% of the bees it needs
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2014/01/16: GaTech: Soil Microbes Alter DNA in Response to Warming
- 2014/01/14: RTCC: Swiss wildlife heads up the Alps to escape warming
  Wildlife seeking relief from warming temperatures by moving further up the mountainsides is proving surprisingly mobile Alpine ecosystems are on the rise. Between 2003 and 2010, plants have managed to scramble up another eight metres of mountain slope.
And then there are the world’s forests:
- 2014/01/17: TheConversation: Big old trees grow faster, making them vital carbon absorbers
- 2014/01/16: Grist: Older trees best at fighting climate change
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Old trees ‘star players’ in carbon uptake
- 2014/01/15: Eureka: Trees grow faster and store more carbon as they age
- 2014/01/15: NatureN: Tree growth never slows — Idea debunked that young trees have the edge on their older siblings in carbon accumulation
- 2014/01/15: Guardian(UK): Trees accelerate growth as they get older and bigger, study finds
  Findings contradict assumption that old trees are less productive and could have important implications for carbon absorption
- 2014/01/15: USGS: Large Old Trees Grow Fastest, Storing More Carbon
- 2014/01/13: Guardian(UK): Peru ignores UN calls to suspend Amazon gas expansion
  Government moves one step closer to expand Camisea project despite concerns about impact on indigenous peoples
Climate refugees are becoming an issue:
Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:
- 2014/01/12: CCP: Global climate change brings big public health challenges, CDC scientist says
Aerosols affect the climate, but they also affect people’s health:
- 2014/01/15: TreeHugger: This scary map shows the health impacts of coal power plants in China
- 2013/10/21: ABC(Au): Bushfire smoke: health risks travel further than the flames
  It’s not just those living in areas directly affect by bushfires who need to be aware of the dangers of bushfire smoke.
Changes in natural cycles are showing up:
- 2014/01/16: Grist: Climate change is waking up the bears and they want to eat us
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2014/01/18: ABC(Au): More hot dry weather as fire burn across south-eastern states
- 2014/01/18: ABC(Au): Bushfires: South Australian residents told to stay on high alert as Eden Valley fire threatens Truro
- 2014/01/18: WSWS: Scores of homes destroyed in Western Australian bushfires
- 2014/01/18: WSWS: Wildfire forces evacuations in Southern California
- 2014/01/18: ABC(Au): Bushfires: Fire in Grampians, Victoria, still out of control; four homes lost in Vic, 12 in South Australia
- 2014/01/17: Guardian(UK): Victorian bushfires: warnings issued as fast-moving fire threatens homes
- 2014/01/17: WSWS: Heat wave and bush fires engulf southern Australia
- 2014/01/17: NASA: Colby Fire Near Los Angeles, California
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): One dead, fears more lives could be lost as bushfires continue to rage across Victoria
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Record temperatures fan Victoria’s fires
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Emergency services’ fears realised on fifth day of heatwave
  The fears of emergency services have been realised on the fifth and hopefully final day of South Australia’s heatwave. Crews have been battling dozens of bushfires, with constantly changing wind conditions causing havoc. Two homes have been lost in one blaze, and a regional town is under threat in another part of the state.
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Melbourne records heatwave not seen for 100 years
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Fire crews monitor Stoneville and Parkerville fire site and warn of asbestos risk
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): SE Australia bushfires raging as crews fight to save lives and homes
- 2014/01/17: CNN: California fights wildfire, expects more as drought emergency declared
  Snowpack in mountains is at 20% of normal levels; reservoirs are at record lows – “This could be a giant fire year” for California, CNN’s Chad Myers says – State faces perhaps worst drought since records began 100 years ago – Governor asks residents and businesses for voluntary 20% conservation
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Live blog: One dead as bushfires burn across Victoria, South Australia, heatwave continues
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Total fire ban for ACT as mercury set to reach 41 degrees
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): One person killed in Grampians blaze as more than 100 bushfires rage across south-east Australia
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Lightning strikes boost fire threat
- 2014/01/16: NASA: Fires in South Australia
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): CFS crews spread across the state as fires burn in SA’s extreme heat
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Victoria bakes: bushfires continue to burn out of control, Metro commuters urged to leave CBD early
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Heatwave in Adelaide: dozens of flying foxes drop dead during extreme heat
- 2014/01/16: BBC: Three held over California ‘Colby’ wildfire
- 2014/01/16: BBC: Australia heatwave: Bushfire kills one
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Fires and electricity prices increase, along with the mercury
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Heatwave: Bushfire threat continues as Australia’s south-east suffers soaring temperatures
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Heatwave brings fire, blackouts and health dangers in SA, Vic, as Adelaide heads for near-record high
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Australian heatwaves more frequent, hotter and longer: Climate Council report
- 2014/01/16: Guardian(UK): Australian heatwaves getting hotter and longer, says Climate Council
- 2014/01/15: UKISS: It’s bloody hot, mate!
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): Heatwave set to cause a power outage for some homes and businesses in Victoria
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): Fire risk set to increase as heatwave continues
- 2014/01/15: BBC: Australia heatwave prompts fire alerts
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): 2014’s hottest places in Australia so far
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): Canberra sizzles as heatwave hits
- 2014/01/15: al Jazeera: Australia hit by hundreds of new wildfires
  Lightning sparks an estimated 250 blazes as southeastern states swelter in temperatures reaching 46C.
- 2014/01/15: MODIS: Fires in coastal Oregon and California (morning overpass) [on Jan.5]
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): Fire crews battle blazes as south-east Australia sizzles in heatwave
- 2014/01/14: Guardian(UK): Why is Australia so hot right now?
  Valuable clues were found in what made the 2009 record-breaking summer heat wave — which killed hundreds of people — quite so deadly
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Bureau of Meteorology reveals first national heatwave definition
  For the first time, the Bureau of Meteorology has provided a national definition of a heatwave.
  […]
  A heatwave is now defined by three or more days of unusually high maximum and minimum temperatures in any area. ABC weather guru Graham Creed says there are three grades of heatwave, with severe and extreme posing the most serious risk.
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Record breaking temperatures for SA
  Parts of South Australia have experienced record breaking temperatures, as the heatwave intensifies across the state. The weather bureau has revised the forecast up for the coming days, with Adelaide on track to equal or surpass its hottest day ever of 46.1 degrees.
- 2014/01/14: al Jazeera: Deadly heatwave grips Australia
  After killing at least one person in Perth, the extreme weather spreads east.
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Perth Hills residents to visit homes destroyed by bushfire
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Canberra to swelter through heat wave
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): South-east Australia sizzles as heatwave takes hold – Temperatures in Adelaide hit 44.5C
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): Tense wait as Perth residents learn the extent of bushfire damage
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): A Stoneville couple who had stayed to defend their home were forced to flee as 10m flames approached
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): At least 46 homes destroyed in Perth hills fire
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): Southern states swelter as heatwave hits
- 2014/01/13: MODIS: Fires in West Africa [on Jan.4]
- 2014/01/13: al Jazeera: Wildfire destroys homes in west Australia
  Flames prevent paramedics from reaching man who collapsed and died on the roof of his home in Perth.
- 2014/01/12: TheConversation: What’s cranking up the heat across south-eastern Australia?
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean’s health:
- 2014/01/17: BBC: Underwater time-lapse shows secret life of a coral reef
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2014/01/15: UCDavis: Acidification, predators pose double threat to oysters
- 2014/01/15: Eureka: Key species of algae shows effects of climate change over time
  Historical comparison of competition among algae in waters around the Pacific Northwest provides more evidence for increased ocean acidification
- 2014/01/15: Eureka: Coral reefs in Palau surprisingly resistant to naturally acidified waters
Glaciers are melting:
- 2014/01/17: FaGP: Lyell Glacier retreat and separation, New Zealand
- 2014/01/16: UZH: Meltwater from Tibetan glaciers floods pastures
- 2014/01/12: FaGP: East Novatak Glacier Retreat, Alaska
Sea levels are rising:
- 2014/01/17: PSinclair: Beach Erosion Mute Evidence of Sea Level Rise
- 2014/01/16: PSinclair: South Florida’s Rising Seas
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2014/01/19: ABC(Au): Bushfires: Firefighters get upper hand in Victoria and South Australia, conditions flare in New South Wales
- 2014/01/19: al Jazeera: Thousands displaced by Jakarta deadly floods
  Several killed and thousands displaced as flash floods and landslides hit Indonesia for the second time this week.
- 2014/01/19: al Jazeera: Italy and France pounded by heavy rain — The severe weather triggers flooding and landslides
- 2014/01/18: CBC: California declares drought emergency — 2013 was driest year on record
- 2014/01/18: TP:JR: California Gov. Brown Declares Drought Emergency Amid Broken Heat Records And Low Reservoirs
- 2014/01/18: BBC: Parts of southern England and Wales could see flooding as heavy rain is expected to fall, forecasters warn. – The Met Office has issued a yellow warning
- 2014/01/18: TMoS: Making Sense of What’s Going on in California
- 2014/01/17: Salon: “The worst drought California has ever seen” is now an official emergency
- 2014/01/17: BBC: California declares drought as early wildfires rage
  The governor of California has declared a state-wide drought, urging residents to conserve water in what could be the state’s driest year on record.
- 2014/01/17: BBC: Key wildlife sites hit in flooding
  Nearly 50 of Britain’s special wildlife sites were hit in the “devastating” recent flooding, according to a new assessment.
- 2014/01/17: al Jazeera: Flash floods hit southeastern Brazil
  Violent storms bring days of heavy rain causing deadly floods and mudslides in the country’s largest city, Sao Paulo.
- 2014/01/17: UCSUSA: Drought Emergency Declared in California
- 2014/01/17: Grist: California is now really, truly, officially screwed by drought
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Record-breaking rain has been dumped on the east Kimberley from a tropical low
- 2014/01/17: IOTD: The Naked Mountain
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: Photos: Floods And Landslides In Southeast Asia Displace Hundreds Of Thousands
- 2014/01/16: Wunderground: Historic January Drought Intensifies in California
- 2014/01/16: CCentral: California Drought Expands, Fueling Heat and Fire
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: Extreme Red Flag Fire Warnings Across Southern California, As Drought And Wind Fuel Fire
- 2014/01/16: CBC: Indonesia flash floods, landslide kill at least 13 – At least 13 dead, 2 villagers missing
- 2014/01/15: NYT: Far West Got Drier Last Year, Data Shows
  Drought conditions in California and elsewhere in the Far West intensified last year, government scientists said Wednesday, adding to concerns about water supplies in the region.
- 2014/01/14: al Jazeera: Indonesia Inundated — Thousands of people in Jakarta are evacuated from their homes [pix]
- 2014/01/14: PSinclair: California Drought: “Unprecedented”
- 2014/01/14: TMoS: America’s Increasingly Soggy East Coast
On the mitigation front, consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2014/01/18: CleanTechnica: Sweden To Get Next-Gen High-Speed Trains
- 2014/01/16: RTCC: Toyota reports 43% rise in hybrid sales
- 2014/01/14: BBC: General Motors sales up 4% in 2013
  The world’s second largest car manufacturer, General Motors, sold 9.71 million vehicles in 2013, an increase of 4% on the year before.
- 2014/01/14: GreenGrok: Americans Driving Down Their Driving Miles
- 2014/01/13: SciAm:PI: The Biggest (missed) Environmental News Story of 2013
- 2014/01/12: CleanTechnica: Japan Offering To Help Build Maglev Train In US – Baltimore To DC In 15 Minutes
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2014/01/15: TreeHugger: In praise of the Dumb Home
- 2014/01/15: Grist: Don’t be smug: Your suburban neighbors cancel out your green urban lifestyle
- 2014/01/14: SaskBoy: Future Proof: Ice Storms
- 2014/01/13: TheConversation: Want to cut your costs of living? Start with a smaller home
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2014/01/19: GeoEngineering: Six commercially-viable ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and/or reduce CO2 emissions
- 2014/01/18: TMoS: Gwynne Dyer Says – Geo-Engineering Will Kill Millions
- 2014/01/18: PeakEnergy: Al Gore says use of geo-engineering to head off climate disaster is insane
- 2014/01/17: TheSpec: Climate change: So much for Plan B — Geo-engineering was our safety net … and now it’s in trouble by Gwynne Dyer
- 2014/01/17: Grist: We may have to suck up CO2 to prevent planet from frying, U.N. says
- 2014/01/17: GEP: IPCC Acknowledges Likely Need for CDR, Al Gore Unloads
- 2014/01/16: Straight: Gwynne Dyer: Geo-engineering is in trouble
- 2014/01/16: NBF: Al Gore does not think climate change is urgent enough to need any experiments at geoengineering or to build nuclear power. He is willing to wait for clean tech and solar and wind
- 2014/01/16: CDreams: Geoengineering Global Cooling: ‘Insane, Utterly Mad and Delusional’
- 2014/01/15: Reuters: World may have to suck gases from air to meet climate goals-UN [draft IPCC WG III Mitigation]
  Draft report outlines solutions to climate change – World doing too little to meeting temperature goal-UN – Suggestions include burying emissions, planting more trees
  Governments may have to extract vast amounts of greenhouse gases from the air by 2100 to achieve a target for limiting global warming, backed by trillion-dollar shifts towards clean energy, a draft U.N. report showed on Wednesday. A 29-page summary for policymakers, seen by Reuters, says most scenarios show that rising world emissions will have to plunge by 40 to 70 percent between 2010 and 2050 to give a good chance of restricting warming to U.N. targets.
- 2014/01/15: ENN: Climate fail: [SRM] Geoengineering would cool planet, but screw up rainfall patterns
- 2014/01/15: Guardian(UK): Al Gore says use of geo-engineering to head off climate disaster is insane
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Climate engineering faces PR problem
- 2014/01/10: LOE: The Pros and Cons of Geoengineering
  In a bid to avoid some of the worst effects of climate change some scientists are advocating possible strategies to artificially alter the climate. But critics warn of unforeseen and dangerous consequences of any atmosphere altering intervention. David Keith from Harvard University and Clive Hamilton of Charles Sturt University in Australia debate the case for each side with host Steve Curwood.
What’s new in restoration?
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Seagrass replanted off Kangaroo Island in a bid to reverse 30-year decline
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Marine ecologists restore seaweed species to Sydney’s coastline
  Marine ecologists from the University of New South Wales say they have successfully restored a seaweed species that once thrived along Sydney’s coastline. The species, commonly known as crayweed, vanished along a large stretch of Sydney’s coast during the 1970s and 80s, most likely due to high levels of sewage outfalls.
While on the adaptation front:
- 2014/01/14: PSinclair: Cities Unprepared for Climate Shocks and Weather Whiplash
- 2014/01/14: TP:JR: Massachusetts Announces $50 Million To Ready Communities For Climate-Driven Storms
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2014/01/14: PNAS: (abs) Methanotrophy induces nitrogen fixation during peatland development by Tuula Larmola et al.
- 2014/01/14: PNAS: (ab$) How risk management can prevent future wildfire disasters in the wildland-urban interface by David E. Calkin et al.
- 2014/01/14: PNAS: (abs) Poleward expansion of mangroves is a threshold response to decreased frequency of extreme cold events by Kyle C. Cavanaugh et al.
- 2014/01/14: PNAS: (ab$) Integrating the invisible fabric of nature into fisheries management by Joseph Travis et al.
- 2014/01/14: PNAS: (letter$) Conservation genomics by Prashant Nair
- 2014/01/14: PNAS: (letter$) Satellites and psychology for improved forest monitoring by Gregory P. Asner
- 2014/01/14: ESD: Global modeling of withdrawal, allocation and consumptive use of surface water and groundwater resources by Y. Wada et al.
- 2014/01/16: ACP: Air quality and radiative forcing impacts of anthropogenic volatile organic compound emissions from ten world regions by M. M. Fry et al.
- 2014/01/15: ACP: Estimation of cloud condensation nuclei concentration from aerosol optical quantities: influential factors and uncertainties by Jianjun Liu & Zhanqing Li
- 2014/01/14: ACP: The direct and indirect radiative effects of biogenic secondary organic aerosol by C. E. Scott et al.
- 2014/01/14: ACPD: Evidence for an earlier greenhouse cooling effect in the stratosphere before the 1980s over the Northern Hemisphere by C. S. Zerefos et al.
- 2014/01/15: Nature: (ab$) Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size by N. L. Stephenson et al.
- 2014/01/16: BGD: The effect of land-use change on the net exchange rates of greenhouse gases: a meta-analytical approach by D.-G. Kim & M. U. F. Kirschbaum
- 2014/01/15: BGD: Controls on pH in surface waters of northwestern European shelf seas by V. M. C. RÃ©rolle et al.
- 2014/01/14: BGD: Can current moisture responses predict soil CO2 efflux under altered precipitation regimes? A synthesis of manipulation experiments by S. Vicca et al.
- 2014/01/13: BGD: Phytoplanktonic response to contrasted Saharan dust deposition events during mesocosm experiments in LNLC environment by C. Ridame et al.
- 2014/01/16: CP: Water mass evolution of the Greenland Sea since late glacial times by M. M. Telesin’ski et al.
- 2014/01/16: CP: Similarity estimators for irregular and age-uncertain time series by K. Rehfeld & J. Kurths
- 2014/01/16: CP: Sediment transport processes across the Tibetan Plateau inferred from robust grain-size end members in lake sediments by E. Dietze et al.
- 2014/01/15: CP: Evaluating the dominant components of warming in Pliocene climate simulations by D. J. Hill et al.
- 2014/01/14: CP: Hindcasting the continuum of Dansgaard-Oeschger variability: mechanisms, patterns and timing by L. Menviel et al.
- 2014/01/16: CPD: Factors controlling the last interglacial climate as simulated by LOVECLIM1.3 by M. F. Loutre et al.
- 2014/01/15: CPD: Pollen-based temperature and precipitation inferences for the montane forest of Mt. Kilimanjaro during the last Glacial and the Holocene by L. SchÃ¼ler et al.
- 2014/01/13: CPD: Sensitivity simulations with direct radiative forcing by aeolian dust during glacial cycles by E. Bauer & A. Ganopolski
- 2014/01/15: ERL: National contributions to observed global warming by H Damon Matthews et al.
- 2014/01/15: ERL: Growing threat of intense tropical cyclones to East Asia over the period 1977-2010 by Doo-Sun R Park et al.
- 2014/01/17: ACPD: Global free tropospheric NO2 abundances derived using a cloud slicing technique applied to satellite observations from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) by S. Choi et al.
- 2014/01/17: HESSD: Global meteorological drought – Part 2: Seasonal forecasts by E. Dutra et al.
- 2014/01/17: HESSD: Global meteorological drought – Part 1: Probabilistic monitoring by E. Dutra et al.
- 2014/01/15: OSD: An observed 20 yr time-series of Agulhas leakage by D. Le Bars et al.
- 2014/01/17: TCD: The Greenland Ice Mapping Project (GIMP) land classification and surface elevation datasets by I. M. Howat et al.
- 2014/01/15: TCD: Present and future variations in Antarctic firn air content by S. R. M. Ligtenberg et al.
- 2014/01/13: OS: A practical scheme to introduce explicit tidal forcing into an OGCM by K. Sakamoto et al.
- 2014/01/13: OSD: The land-ice contribution to 21st century dynamic sea-level rise by T. Howard et al.
- 2014/01/14: TC: A decade (2002-2012) of supraglacial lake volume estimates across Russell Glacier, West Greenland by A. A. W. Fitzpatrick et al.
- 2014/01/13: TC: Impact of physical properties and accumulation rate on pore close-off in layered firn by S. A. Gregory et al.
- 2014/01/14: TCD: Parameterization of basal hydrology near grounding lines in a one-dimensional ice sheet model by G. R. Leguy et al.
- 2014/01/14: TCD: The importance of insolation changes for paleo ice sheet modeling by A. Robinson & H. Goelzer
- 2014/01/14: TCD: Fabric measurement along the NEEM ice core, Greenland, and comparison with GRIP and NGRIP ice cores by M. Montagnat et al.
- 2014/01/13: TCD: How old is the ice beneath Dome A, Antarctica? by B. Sun et al.
- 2014/01/13: TCD: A spurious jump in the satellite record: is Antarctic sea ice really expanding? by I. Eisenman et al.
- 2014/01/12: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) High levels of molecular chlorine in the Arctic atmosphere by Jin Liao et al.
- 2014/01/12: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Muted change in Atlantic overturning circulation over some glacial-aged Heinrich events by Jean Lynch-Stieglitz et al.
- 2014/01/12: Nature:CC: (ab$) A quantitative evaluation of the public response to climate engineering by Malcolm J. Wright et al.
- 2014/01/12: Nature:CC: (ab$) How warm days increase belief in global warming by Lisa Zaval et al.
- 2014/01/12: Nature:CC: (ab$) Retreat of Pine Island Glacier controlled by marine ice-sheet instability by L. Favier et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2014/01/17: RtS: [link to 534k pdf] Stinking Hot Down Under
- 2014/01/15: Oxfam: [link to 109k pdf] Dutch beat French and Swiss to top Oxfam’s new global food table
In the science organizations:
- 2014/01/14: ScienceInsider: U.S. Science Agencies Get Some Relief in 2014 Budget
- 2014/01/14: NatureN: Science agencies regain footing in Congressional budget deal — US$1.1-trillion spending bill would end era of automatic cuts
- 2014/01/13: ScienceInsider: Business Gains Drive Higher R&D Spending in U.S.
More DIY science:
- 2014/01/15: Moyhu: Using WebGL for Earth data mapping
What’s new in models?
- 2014/01/16: TSoD: Ghosts of Climates Past – Twelve – GCM V – Ice Age Termination
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?
- 2014/01/17: ScienceInsider: Omnibus Bill Gives Nudge to Public Access
- 2014/01/15: EFF: In the Open Access Fight, Big Publishers Are the Biggest Hurdle
Regarding Hansen:
- 2014/01/14: CCP: Hansen puts out a call for help in testimony by pipeline engineering experts and climate scientists wrt tar sands development consequences
Regarding Dessler:
- 2014/01/16: ERabett: Andrew Dessler’s Testimony to the Senate
- 2014/01/16: PSinclair: Dr. Andrew Dessler — Climate Science Meets the Gold Standard — Accurate Predictions
Regarding Leibo:
- 2014/01/17: UCSUSA:B: “Climate Change Invaded My Field”: A Conversation with Historian and Science Advocate Steven Leibo
Regarding Mann:
- 2014/01/18: ATTPh: Curry vs Mann
- 2014/01/17: RealClimate: If You See Something, Say Something
- 2014/01/17: NYT: If You See Something, Say Something
- 2014/01/17: CCP: Michael Mann, NYT: “If you see something, say something”
Meanwhile at the UN:
- 2014/01/15: UN: Time for investors to move out of high-carbon assets, says UN climate change official
- 2014/01/14: RTCC: Fossil fuel giants face ‘climate stress test’ call at UN summit
  New York ‘climate risk’ meeting will call on oil majors to evaluate size of carbon reserves that are incompatible with warming world The world’s 48 leading fossil fuel companies will be asked to run a ‘climate stress test’ at a summit hosted at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday.
And on the carbon trading front:
On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:
- 2014/01/16: BBerg: More Iran Sanctions Will Hurt the U.S.
- 2014/01/16: WSWS: With Iran accord, US shifts tactics, not predatory aims
- 2014/01/16: Guardian(UK): White House releases summary of Iran nuclear deal amid calls for transparency
- 2014/01/15: AntiWar: Israel Lobby Thwarted in Iran Sanctions Bid for Now
- 2014/01/14: CDreams: Invading Iraq Was Dumb Enough. Now Congress Wants to Derail the Iran Deal
- 2014/01/14: AntiWar: A Blank Check for War on Iran [Buchanan]
- 2014/01/14: al Jazeera: US concerned about Iran-Russia oil deal
  Iran and Russia are negotiating an oil-for-goods swap worth $1.5bn a month which could trigger further US sanctions.
- 2014/01/14: BBerg: Obama Seeks to Halt New Sanctions Amid Iran Deal Scrutiny
- 2014/01/13: CCurrents: Nuclear Deal, Nuclear Imperialism or Nuclear Apartheid?
- 2014/01/13: CCurrents: Iran And US Finalize Interim Nuclear Deal
- 2014/01/13: AntiWar: White House Threatens ‘Action’ Against Iran If Talks Fail — Threats Aim to Preempt Senate Sanctions
- 2014/01/13: EUO: Iran nuclear freeze to start 20 January
- 2014/01/12: Guardian(UK): Iran to implement nuclear deal as Obama repeats Congress sanctions plea
- 2014/01/11: SST: Success in Iran Talks
South [& East] China Sea tension persists:
- 2014/01/15: Asia Times: China casts red tape in South China Sea
- 2014/01/15: BBC: Chinese to Japan: Be more like Germany (but not the Nazis)
  The war of words between Japan and China seems to have deteriorated into an international trolling match, what with the level of name-calling and Voldemort-referencing by diplomats on both sides.
- 2014/01/14: Guardian(UK): China to regulate fishing in disputed South China sea
  The Philippines and Vietnam have condemned the rules, saying they infringe on their own 200-mile exclusive economic zones
The fight over South Atlantic sea floor oil fields simmers in the background:
You’ll notice there’s no mention of the Chinese-Nicaragua deal in the BBC story:
- 2014/01/13: BBC: Panama Canal expansion project: Have American fears come true?
- 2014/01/12: EconomyWatch: Nicaragua To Start Construction On Canal, Rivalling Panama’s, By December
  Nicaragua will finally begin construction on a $40 billion inter-oceanic waterway — that will rival the Panama Canal in scope and size — by the end of the year, said President Daniel Ortega on Saturday, following an agreement with a Chinese company on the future rights and management of the project.
These ‘free trade’ treaties are a stealth corporate takeover with anti-democratic dispute resolution mechanisms:
- 2014/01/15: WikiLeaks: Press release: Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) – Environment Chapter
- 2014/01/16: WikiLeaks: TPPA Environment Chapter & Chair’s Commentary
- 2014/01/18: TheCanadian: Wikileaks exposes weak environmental provisions of TPP trade deal
- 2014/01/17: CDreams: The TPP – The More We Know, The Worse It Gets
- 2014/01/17: NatInt: Eight Ways You’re Wrong About Iran’s Nuclear Program
- 2014/01/17: OpenMedia: Criminalization is only for Internet users in the TPP – not for those who violate the environment
- 2014/01/16: DemNow: Japan Remains Hotbed of TPP Protest as U.S. Tries to Fast-Track Trade Deal, Crush Environmental Laws
- 2014/01/16: NakedCapitalism: Wikileaks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Environment Chapter: “Toothless Public Relations Exercise”
- 2014/01/16: IPSNews: Pacific Trade Deal “Backtracking” on Environment Safeguards
- 2014/01/16: TreeHugger: 4 ways the Pacific trade deal is awful for the environment
- 2014/01/15: Grist: Leaked Pacific trade treaty draft suggests the planet will pay
- 2014/01/15: CEPR:BtP: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is Not a Free-Trade Agreement
- 2014/01/15: CDreams: Leaked TPP ‘Environment Chapter’ Shows ‘Corporate Agenda Wins’
  US called main ‘outlier’ when it comes to strong protections; Leak comes as Obama tries to ram trade deal through Congress
- 2014/01/15: CDreams: ‘Worse than Bush’: Green Groups Sound Alarm Over Obama’s Trade Deal
  Following leaked document of pending trade deal, green groups slam ‘unacceptable’ environmental chapter
- 2014/01/15: CDreams: NAFTA at 20: A Model for Corporate Rule
  NAFTA gave multinational corporations the right to sue governments to block regulations they don’t like, undermining democracy and local sovereignty.
- 2014/01/15: CCurrents: TPP: Poison For Local Community Resilience
- 2014/01/15: BBC: Giant US trade deal [TPP] might weaken shark fin ban
  Environmental campaigners are “extremely concerned” that a new trade deal involving the US could weaken a global ban on shark finning. The first steps to outlaw the practice were agreed at a meeting in Bangkok last March. But the leaked draft text of the new deal involving 12 Pacific countries has no binding commitment to curb finning. The long-running negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement are due to conclude in April.
- 2014/01/14: FPIF: Open Fire and Open Markets: The Asia-Pacific Pivot and Trans-Pacific Partnership
  Thomas Friedman once said the hidden hand of the market needs the hidden fist of the military. The TPP and the Obama administration’s Pacific Pivot pack both.
- 2014/01/14: RealEconomics: Chomsky on TPP
- 2014/01/13: FDL: TPP Set To Be Finalized According To Australian Trade Minister
- 2014/01/13: HuffPo: Noam Chomsky: Obama Trade Deal A ‘Neoliberal Assault’ To Further Corporate ‘Domination’
Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, resources, religion, ideology … etc.:
- 2014/01/18: SimpleC: New tests seek peace in climate conflict blame game
- 2014/01/17: Guardian(UK): US Army colonel: world is sleepwalking to a global energy crisis
  Senior figures from industry, military and politics explore risks of financial chaos, oil depletion and climate catastrophe
- 2014/01/16: Guardian(UK): Income gap poses biggest threat to global community, warns WEF
  World Economic Forum survey identifies inequality as biggest flashpoint as well as extreme weather and unemployment
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
- 2014/01/18: WSWS: UK police demand Channel 4 hand over whistle-blower’s footage
  British police have stepped up their efforts to seize material from the Channel 4 TV station relating to their broadcasting of revelations provided by former UK intelligence operative and whistle-blower Peter Francis. In recent years Francis has provided material to Channel 4 and the Guardian newspaper revealing that Britain’s intelligence services and police have organised systematic and long-term spying and infiltration of political groups and protest campaigns.
- 2014/01/17: Guardian(UK): Chinese anti-corruption activist goes on trial
  Xu Zhiyong, who has called on officials to reveal their wealth, faces charges he broke the law by organising protests
- 2014/01/15: MLive: Judge denies motion to dismiss charges against four Enbridge oil pipeline protesters
- 2014/01/15: DeSmogBlog: Michigan Judge Dismisses Charges Against Activist Who Protested Inside Enbridge’s 6B Pipeline
What are the activists up to?
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): Protesters chained to bulldozers at Maules Creek [coal] mine site in NSW
Is the Climate Movement anything more than a fantasy?
- 2014/01/15: Guardian(UK): To tackle inequality, the first priority is to fight climate change
- 2014/01/15: Guardian(UK): Harnessing governments, business and finance for a green revolution
  Forget the futile climate debate. Let’s focus on driving business, political and financial leaders to act, writes Stephen Kinnock
The move to divest from fossil fuel investments is growing slowly:
- 2014/01/16: Grist: U.N. climate chief calls for fossil-fuel divestment
- 2014/01/15: CCurrents: Catching The Second Wave: Fossil Fuel Divestment And Ethical Finance
- 2014/01/15: BBC: Get your cash out of fossil fuel backed funds says UN climate chief
  The pensions and nest eggs of billions of people around the world are being put at risk by global warming, says the UN’s climate chief. Christiana Figueres has called on investors to pull their money out of fossil fuel linked funds. She said institutional investors would be in blatant breach of their fiduciary duty if they ignored the “clear scientific evidence”. Ms Figueres said that they should put their money into green assets instead.
Polls! We have polls!
- 2014/01/16: PaiD: Some Interesting And Encouraging Poll Results
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: Canadian Support Of Keystone XL Pipeline Is Falling, New Poll Says
- 2014/01/16: RTCC: Women and under-30s most concerned about climate change
  Survey of 700 global experts offers intriguing glimpse into risk perception in latest World Economic Forum study Women and the under 30s are more concerned about the potential impacts of climate change than men and older generations.
- 2014/01/12: Eureka: Climate engineering — what do the public think?
Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:
- 2014/01/17: Resilience: Public Water Systems Can Help the War on Poverty
- 2014/01/17: OilChange: Drought emergency in California raises stakes on fracking fight
- 2014/01/16: Asia Times: South Asia taps into water cooperation
- 2014/01/16: JFleck: Water policy is no one thing
- 2014/01/16: JFleck: A desert river in winter
- 2014/01/15: JFleck: Shortage on the Colorado River
- 2014/01/14: TreeHugger: Peak Water and Food Scarcity by Lester Brown
- 2014/01/14: EurActiv: EU citizens force water debate onto agenda
  Water and who should provide it – the public or private sector – has become the first issue to be pushed onto Brussels’ policy agenda via a new mechanism meant to involve ordinary people in EU decision-making.
- 2014/01/13: TreeHugger: 52% of Earth’s 9.7 billion people will live in water-stressed areas in 2050, MIT study shows
- 2014/01/13: PSinclair: Big Coal’s War on Water
- 2014/01/12: JFleck: Rivers and plumbing
Regarding science education:
- 2014/01/16: Slate: Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism
  An investigation into charter schools’ dishonest and unconstitutional science, history, and “values” lessons.
- 2014/01/16: TMoS: It’s Never Too Late
While in the UK:
- 2014/01/17: Grist: Will the U.K. follow the U.S. on a fracking binge?
- 2014/01/16: RT: UK worsens global hunger crisis by ‘blocking reforms on food speculation’
- 2014/01/16: BBC: Ministers clarify flood defence spending figures
  The government has been forced to clarify its claim to be spending more on flood defences than ever before. Floods minister Dan Rogerson has admitted “some minor inconsistencies” in figures provided, adding that they have now been “rectified”. The amount of flood spending will reach a new high – but that is only if the government counts partnership funding from local councils. Labour called the government’s clarification “humiliating”.
- 2014/01/16: BBC: Call for help with Â£400m flooding repair
  The government is being urged to help local authorities amid warnings they face a Â£400m repair bill after severe weather damaged infrastructure.
- 2014/01/16: Resilience: UK international commitments on climate change are incompatible with the development of a national shale gas industry
- 2014/01/16: WSWS: UK Environment Agency warns of job cuts
  Severe flooding across Britain has led to the loss of seven lives and massive damage to property. As a result of a 10 percent cut to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in last June’s spending review, the Environment Agency (EA) has warned that hundreds of flood defence staff face losing their jobs this year.
- 2014/01/15: CdnTrends: The future rapidly approaches: Britain warned blackouts may be ‘regular occurrence’ by winter of 2015
- 2014/01/15: BBC: Back-to-nature flood schemes need ‘government leadership’
  Water experts are calling on ministers to show greater leadership on flooding. They say the government is failing to promote back-to-nature schemes which protect lowland homes by deliberately creating floods in the hills.
- 2014/01/15: BBerg: U.K. Lobbied in Brussels to Halt EU Legislation on Shale Gas
- 2014/01/15: RTCC: Cameron says 2020s decarbonisation target “extremely unwise”
  Prime Minister says UK must develop carbon capture technologies before committing to tough emission goals A target to decarbonise the UK electricity sector by 2030 is “extremely unwise” because it would rule out fossil-fuelled electricity and carbon capture and storage, David Cameron has told a committee of MPs.
- 2014/01/15: RTCC: US frackers lining up to drill in UK says industry leader
- 2014/01/15: OilChange: Scientific Evidence Against Fracking is Not “Irrational”
- 2014/01/15: BBC: Japan’s Toshiba to buy 60% stake in UK nuclear venture
  Japan’s Toshiba has agreed to buy a controlling stake in UK nuclear venture NuGeneration, which aims to build three power plants in north-west England. NuGeneration is set to construct three new nuclear plants at the Moorside site in West Cumbria. Toshiba is to buy a 60% stake in the project, in a deal worth about Â£102m.
- 2014/01/14: Guardian(UK): UK defeats European bid for fracking regulations
  Leaked documents show successful opposition to attempts to safeguard the environment with a legally binding directive
- 2014/01/14: Guardian(UK): Expect storms ahead over local flood crisis funds
  David Cameron was quick to blame local authorities after the recent floods. But can they cope with worsening weather along with massive cuts?
- 2014/01/14: TP:JR: Are Towns In England Being Bribed To Accept Fracking?
- 2014/01/14: RealClimate: Thames Barrier raised again
- 2014/01/13: Monbiot: Drowning in Money — The hidden and remarkable story of why devastating floods keep happening
- 2014/01/13: BBC: HS2 rail project ‘to have dedicated FE college’
  The HS2 high-speed rail project is to have a dedicated further education college to train engineers, ministers have announced.
- 2014/01/13: BBC: Cameron urges fracking opponents to ‘get on board’
  Councils that back fracking will get to keep more money in tax revenue, David Cameron has said as he urged opponents to “get on board”. The prime minister said English local authorities would receive all the business rates collected from shale gas schemes – rather than the usual 50%. In a visit to a Lincolnshire fracking site, he predicted the process could support 74,000 jobs and reduce bills. But Greenpeace accused ministers of trying to “bribe councils”.
- 2014/01/13: Guardian(UK): Fracking bribes will tie us into a future of high energy prices
  The UK government is steaming ahead with shale gas – while failing to support renewable energy and energy efficiency
- 2014/01/13: Guardian(UK): Drowning in money: the untold story of the crazy public spending that makes flooding inevitable [Monbiot]
  Every year billions are spent in Britain and Europe on policies that wreck homes and lives through flooding
- 2014/01/13: RTCC: Clear climate risks linked to fracking, scientists told UK government
  What a difference a week makes.
  Last Wednesday UK Prime Minister David Cameron warned Parliament of the links between extreme weather events and climate change. He was speaking as parts of the country lay submerged under water, with flood defences having been breached by a series of storms and heavy rains in the past month.
  Today he issued a gung-ho statement claiming the country was “going all-out” for shale gas, promising financial backing to local councils who promote drilling.
- 2014/01/13: RTCC: UK “going all out for shale” with 40 fracking sites in pipeline
And in Europe:
- 2014/01/17: Guardian(UK): Cut carbon emissions by 40% in 16 years, Ed Davey tells EU
- 2014/01/17: GET: Vattenfall Agrees to Sell 74.9 % Share in Electricity Grid to City of Hamburg
- 2014/01/17: EurActiv: UK, Czechs call for nuclear-friendly 2030 energy policy
  The United Kingdom and the Czech Republic have opposed calls by eight EU member states to introduce a renewable energy target for 2030, claiming the EU’s future climate and energy framework should be technology neutral and allow nuclear energy among other sources, EurActiv.cz reports.
- 2014/01/17: EurActiv: State aid row engulfs UK shale gas plans
  The EU’s competition commissioner, JoaquÃn Almunia, has said that Brussels will investigate the UK’s plans for incentivising shale gas production “if needed”, as more lawmakers and NGOs call for an EU state aid probe to be launched.
- 2014/01/17: EurActiv: EU moves to curb food price bets by traders
- 2014/01/16: EurActiv: ‘Low carbon leakage’ begins as EU prepares to junk efficiency goal
  Fears of a relocation of Europe’s clean energy industry abroad – low carbon leakage – have been fanned with news of a factory closure by a German insulation company that has a billion-dollar annual turnover.
- 2014/01/16: RTCC: EU climate leadership in doubt as talks on 2030 targets stall
  Climate diplomacy experts say 40% emission cut target will “not be taken seriously” by rest of world Negotiations over the EU’s proposed climate targets for 2030 are still stuck over the level of greenhouse gas emission reductions the Union is prepared to accept.
- 2014/01/16: Eureka: EU could cut emissions by 40 percent at moderate cost
- 2014/01/15: DerSpiegel: Green Fade-Out: Europe to Ditch Climate Protection Goals
  The EU’s reputation as a model of environmental responsibility may soon be history. The European Commission wants to forgo ambitious climate protection goals and pave the way for fracking — jeopardizing Germany’s touted energy revolution in the process.
- 2014/01/15: GET: Federal Administrative Court Confirms Illegality of Moratorium Shutdown Order for Biblis Nulear Power Plants
- 2014/01/14: WNN: German nuclear shutdown unlawful
  The forced closure of RWE’s Biblis nuclear power plant after the Fukushima accident was unlawful, the German Supreme Administrative Court has ruled. The utility is now likely to sue for considerable damages.
- 2014/01/14: DerSpiegel: Deceptive Labeling: Brussels Plans Tougher Organic Food Rules
  The European Commission plans to tighten rules on the booming organic food sector due to concerns that many products aren’t as pure as claimed. More rigorous checks are needed and loopholes must be removed, says a draft paper seen by Spiegel.
- 2014/01/14: EurActiv: EU citizens force water debate onto agenda
  Water and who should provide it – the public or private sector – has become the first issue to be pushed onto Brussels’ policy agenda via a new mechanism meant to involve ordinary people in EU decision-making.
- 2014/01/14: EurActiv: Shale gas firms face binding law if they fail ‘scoreboard’ test
  European countries allowing shale gas drills will have to publish a ‘scoreboard’ showing compliance with ‘best environmental practices’ which could become legally-binding within 18 months, under new EU rules seen by EurActiv.
- 2014/01/14: EUO: EU to propose pro-industry fracking guidelines
- 2014/01/14: EUO: EU mulls scrapping 2030 binding renewables targets
- 2014/01/14: RTCC: EU Parliament gives strong backing to carbon capture
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2014/01/18: PeakEnergy: Directing Heat At The Right Target
- 2014/01/18: ABC(Au): Welfare agency says heatwaves should be treated as emergencies
- 2014/01/18: RNE: Solar saved southern states from new and costly demand peaks
- 2014/01/17: Guardian(UK): The blackouts during Australia’s heatwave didn’t happen by accident
  Australia broke yet another heatwave record this week while thousands of people suffered from electricity blackouts
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Coober Pedy Council fights high power prices
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings names March 15 election date, ditches Greens
- 2014/01/16: Guardian(UK): Know any climate change sceptics? Turn off their air conditioning
  As horrible as this week’s heatwave weather is on South Australians and Canadian tennis players alike, it provides climate change advocates with an invaluable opportunity
- 2014/01/15: RNE: ARENA, Alinta agree funds for Port Augusta solar thermal study
- 2014/01/15: RNE: Hydro Tasmania blames vested interests for attack on renewables
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): 26 tips to beat the heat without air-conditioning
- 2014/01/15: TheConversation: How coal seam gas is changing the face of rural Queensland
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): Energy regulator warns of outages as electricity demand reaches record levels
- 2014/01/14: TheConversation: Our deadly bushfire gamble: risk your life or bet your house
- 2014/01/14: Guardian(UK): Electricity tariff system unfair and unsustainable, say energy experts
  Consumers who sweat it out in a heatwave subsidise those who turn on the air conditioning by $250 a year, research shows
Now we get to watch the suppository of wisdom destroy what little Australia has done to fight climate change:
- 2014/01/18: CCP: Climate Code Red: A climate of denial grips Abbott government’s holiday madness
- 2014/01/18: WSWS: Indonesia demands suspension of Australian naval operations against refugees
- 2014/01/17: Guardian(UK): CSIRO scientists say warmer world wager with Maurice Newman a safe bet
  Tony Abbott’s adviser had called for takers for wager that global temperatures would be lower in 20 years
- 2014/01/17: TheConversation: Three major loopholes in the Direct Action climate plan
  […]
  There are three standout problems.
  First, there is a risk that money will be given to carbon-reduction projects that would have gone ahead anyway, thus taking funding away from other projects.
  Second, the way emissions reductions are calculated could potentially penalise those who have already made cuts, while the most intense polluters might be spared from having to bring themselves into line with industry best practice.
  And third, companies that fail to meet their emissions pledges could be given long deadlines to put it right, with only minor financial penalties.
- 2014/01/17: PeakEnergy: Tony Abbott’s half-baked war on renewable energy
- 2014/01/17: RNE: Tony Abbott walking a solar tightrope
- 2014/01/17: Guardian(UK): Coalition’s ‘stopping the boats’ strategy taking on water
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Government rejects reports Navy fired warning shots at asylum seeker boat; Indonesia’s Marty Natalegawa says lifeboat plan a ‘slippery slope’
- 2014/01/15: RNE: Direct Action trashed as “wishful thinking” and unfinanceable
- 2014/01/14: WSWS: Australia: New school curriculum to promote war and nationalism
- 2014/01/14: Guardian(UK): The Abbott government shouldn’t drag charity back to the 17th century
- 2014/01/13: RNE: Abbott won’t let facts derail his anti-renewables campaign
- 2014/01/13: al Jazeera: Australia according to Pyne: White, Christian and at war
  Australian government wants to change current syllabus to reflect ‘the significance of Judeo-Christian values’.
- 2014/01/13: TP:JR: During Fiery Heatwaves Australian PM Looks To Stall Thriving Clean Energy Sector
At Australian Open tennis matches this week, we had the notable spectacle of athletes collapsing from overheating:
- 2014/01/17: TP:JR: Australian Tennis Tournament Invokes ‘Extreme Heat Policy’ To Suspend Outdoor Play
- 2014/01/17: QuarkSoup: Manmade Global Heat Stroke (AKA The Australian Open)
- 2014/01/16: TMoS: Australian Open Calls Matches on Account of Heat
- 2014/01/16: PrecariousC: Tennis heat just the beginning
- 2014/01/16: PSinclair: Too Hot for Tennis Downunder
- 2014/01/16: CBC: Heatwave havoc at Australian Open
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Australian Open: Extreme heat policy in effect as temperatures soar above 40 degrees
- 2014/01/16: Guardian(UK): Is the Australian Open tennis feeling the heat of climate change?
  As tennis players complain and collapse due to the heat, scientists say climate change is driving a rise in extreme temperatures across Australia
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Australian Open: Extreme heat policy takes effect as temperatures soar above 40 degrees
- 2014/01/15: CBC: Australian Open organizers implement extreme heat policy
- 2014/01/15: BBC: Heatwave halts Australian Open tennis tournament
- 2014/01/14: CCP: Australia: Tennis players dropping like bats — Players Are Fainting, Puking, And Hallucinating At The Australian Open
After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are far from finished:
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): SA Mallee farmers want water cuts delayed
  Potato growers in South Australia’s Mallee say immediate changes to the region’s groundwater allocation would significantly affect the region’s economy. The SA Government is making changes to the Mallee Prescribed Wells Water Allocation Plan and wants to halve the region’s groundwater allocation immediately. All irrigation water in the Mallee is sourced from groundwater.
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Fire season sparks calls for emergency water supply
- 2014/01/17: ABC(Au): Two kilometres of Macquarie River pipeline laid
  The construction of the Macquarie River pipeline project is on schedule with crews laying up to 400-metres of pipe a day. The 37-kilometre pipeline will provide a more secure water source for Orange.
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Marra Creek water efficiency plans
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Parched Longreach warned to save water
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Environmental damage caused by environmental flows
  Water that was bought to save the environment in the Murray-Darling Basin may be damaging it. A resident living on the banks of the Goulburn River says because of recent environmental flow events, he’s watching the banks of the river fall apart.
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): Outback town’s drinking-water crisis
  Searing heat is sucking dams dry in far west New South Wales. But it’s not only livestock that are being affected. In Tibooburra, the dam that supplies the town water is evaporating.
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): Murray-Darling irrigators win funding [to] improve efficiency
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): Keeping thirsty sheep alive
  Scorching temperatures in far west New South Wales are drying already parched dams and leaving stock thirsty. In an effort to give their animals a drink, many graziers in the region are carting water and turning on bores.
- 2014/01/14: ABC(Au): Temporary water prices jump
  Soaring temperatures across the southern part of the Murray-Darling Basin have caused a spike in temporary water prices. As irrigators increase their water use, some are buying water for as much as $90 a megalitre. Senior market analyst at broking firm Waterfind, Tim House, says as prices continue to rise, water may get too expensive for some irrigators.
- 2014/01/13: ABC(Au): Irrigators confused over electricity tariff change
And in the Indian subcontinent:
- 2014/01/17: Guardian(UK): Rahul Gandhi will not run as Indian prime minister
- 2014/01/17: RNE: Even India could reach nearly 100% renewables by 2051
- 2014/01/17: Resilience: Indian Microgrids Aim to Bring Millions out of Darkness
- 2014/01/13: NBF: India’s government is guaranteeing 800 million people about 5 kilograms of subsidized food per month for each person
While in China:
- 2014/01/16: RealEconomics: NOW, China decides to become concerned with the environment
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Dangerous pollution hits the Chinese capital Beijing – visibility down to a few hundred metres
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: Beijing Gets Hit With First Off-The-Charts Air Pollution Day Of The Year
- 2014/01/16: BBC: Residents of China’s capital, Beijing, have been warned to take precautions after air pollution readings soared
- 2014/01/15: NBF: China’s leadership is promoting genetically modified food to get the people to accept higher yielding modified crops and animals
- 2014/01/14: BBerg: China Industrial Plants Breach Emissions Standards, Study Finds
And in Japan:
- 2014/01/15: DemNow: Shock Doctrine in Japan: Shinzo Abe’s Rightward Shift to Militarism, Secrecy in Fukushima’s Wake
- 2014/01/14: EneNews: ‘Game Changer’: Former Prime Ministers team up to win Tokyo election and end nuclear power – It’s endangering the existence of Japan…
- 2014/01/01: GlobalPost: Antinuclear ex-PM Hosokawa to vie for Tokyo gov., backed by Koizumi
While in Africa:
- 2014/01/12: Guardian(UK): Global warming and energy — intertwined problems in Africa
And South America:
- 2014/01/17: CensoredNews: Ecuador Rights of Nature Tribunal hears 8 cases — First Global Tribunal on Rights of Nature hears 8 cases
- 2014/01/16: CensoredNews: Ponca Casey Camp at Rights of Nature Summit Tribunal in Ecuador
- 2014/01/15: CensoredNews: Rights of Nature Summit and Tribunal in Ecuador this week
- 2014/01/15: BBC: Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro’s sacking put on hold by court
  A court in Colombia has temporarily put on hold a controversial decision by the country’s inspector general to remove Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro from office.
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:
- 2014/01/17: TheCanadian: Fisheries Critic questions habitat protection handover for pipelines
- 2014/01/16: TMoS: How Dangerous is Stephen Harper’s Fossil Fetish?
- 2014/01/15: TMoS: Are We Just Going to Turn Our Backs on This?
- 2014/01/15: CBC: Time for Obama to make up his mind on Keystone XL pipeline [says Baird]
- 2014/01/15: PI:B: More trouble with 2030
- 2014/01/14: TMoS: Harper Admits Canada’s Carbon Emissions Will Soar. Say Goodbye to the 22nd Century. Say Hello to Canada’s Orwellian Nightmare.
- 2014/01/13: Grist: Canada’s energy officials take over job of protecting fish from pipelines
- 2014/01/13: TheCanadian: Canada failing to meet even domestic climate targets; Huge spike expected post-2020
- 2014/01/13: G&M: Northern Gateway overshadows Ottawa’s marine-safety project
  The federal government has launched a major new project, known as the World Class Initiative, which is intended to make Canada’s waters safer from shipping accidents and gain the social licence needed to increase marine transportation of oil and gas. But the primary initial focus of that project may surprise people. It’s aimed at Douglas Channel, the long, narrow inlet that leads to Kitimat, which at this point is not a major petro shipping route.
The outrage over the Harper gang’s libricide continues:
- 2014/01/18: Tyee: Librarians Say Cullings Signify Harper’s New Information Policy — Closures and ‘denigration’ of library materials show trend to ‘minimalist government.’
- 2014/01/17: NatureN: Canadian government accused of destroying environmental archives
  Researchers fear that valuable documents will disappear as libraries close and merge.
- 2014/01/14: Tyee: New Democrats Press DFO Minister on Library Closures — ‘Allegations of effective book burning are very troubling to Canadians’: NDP
- 2014/01/12: Creekside: (cartoon – Alison) Toss another book on the fire
- 2014/01/12: TStar: That’s no way to treat a library, scientists say
  As budget cuts gut Fisheries and Oceans research facilities, scientists are leery of federal reassurances that nothing will be lost. One day last summer, federal scientists using the fisheries and oceans library on Quebec’s GaspÃ© Peninsula saw a dumpster on the grounds filled with hundreds of research books and periodicals to be destroyed.
- 2014/01/12: PSinclair: Canada’s War on Science
- 2014/01/12: PaiD: An Unspeakably Sad Picture – materials tossed in a dumpster upon the closure of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada library in Mont-Joli, Que
Rumbles over Strahl lobbying for Enbridge continue:
- 2014/01/16: OpenMedia: Canadian spy watchdogs are lobbyists – and that is a problem
- 2014/01/16: Tyee: Canada’s Spy Watchdogs Are Lobbyists, and That’s a Problem
- 2014/01/13: DeSmogBlog: Legal Expert: “Inherent Challenge” in Having Enbridge Lobbyist Serve as Spy Watchdog
The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:
- 2014/01/18: TheCanadian: Legal errors could send Enbridge review back to drawing board
- 2014/01/18: al Jazeera: North Gateway pipeline: Another notch in Canada’s poor environmental record
  Despite opposition from the public and environmentalists, the government appears to be moving ahead with the project.
- 2014/01/17: CBC: Northern Gateway pipeline report draws lawsuit — B.C. environmental groups seek to block cabinet approval
  A coalition of environment groups has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court alleging serious flaws with the Joint Review Panel’s final report that recommended the pipeline be approved because “Canadians will be better off with this project than without it.” The group is seeking a court order to prevent the federal cabinet from acting on the panel’s report to approve the proposed pipeline. Ecojustice lawyers representing ForestEthics Advocacy, the Living Oceans Society and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation allege the Joint Review Panel’s 419-page report contains legal errors and that its approval is based on insufficient evidence.
- 2014/01/16: WCEL: NEB’s thumbs up ignores wall of opposition that will stop Enbridge
- 2014/01/15: TerraceStandard: Long, long road yet for Enbridge pipeline
- 2014/01/15: BCLSB: Northern Gateway Pipeline: Something I Didn’t Know
- 2014/01/14: G&M: Diluted bitumen sinks when mixed with sediments, federal report says
  Diluted bitumen, the molasses-like product that would be transported by the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, sinks in salt water when battered by waves and mixed with sediments, according to a new study by the federal government. However, when free of sediments, the crude floats even after evaporation and exposure to light, the study determined.
And the Kinder Morgan expansion:
- 2014/01/16: CensoredNews: Video Secwepemc Women Warrior Society say no to Kinder Morgan pipeline
- 2014/01/12: TheCanadian: Regulator ‘pulling a fast one’ with short Kinder Morgan public comment period
Neil Young has been raising a ruckus with his _Honour The Treaties_ tour:
- 2014/01/19: MSimon: Neil Young and the Message That Must Be Heard
- 2014/01/18: Tyee: Neil Young to Harper: Fear Our Emotion!
- 2014/01/18: PostMedia: Neil Young is telling us something we need to hear
- 2014/01/17: TStar: Jim Cuddy joins Neil Young in criticizing oilsands development
  The Blue Rodeo singer issues a statement of solidarity with Young’s calls for responsible oilsands development on the “Honor the Treaties” tour
- 2014/01/17: TheCanadian: Oil lobby tries to tar Neil Young
- 2014/01/17: CTV: Sifting through the rhetoric of Neil Young’s anti-oilsands tour
- 2014/01/17: OilChange: Neil Young: Tar Sands Are a “War Zone”
- 2014/01/17: MSimon: Neil Young and the Attack of the Oil Pimps
- 2014/01/16: CTV: Neil Young: Alberta will ‘look like the moon’ unless oilsands development stopped
- 2014/01/16: BBerg: Neil Young Says Keystone XL Terrible Idea
  TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline is a “terrible idea” that won’t benefit anyone, Canadian musician Neil Young said. “This fuel is all going to China, which is probably the dirtiest place on the planet,” Young told reporters before a concert in Winnipeg, Manitoba, yesterday. Young, who formed his first bands in the city and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, is on tour to raise money for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, which is fighting to stop oil-sands expansion on their traditional lands. His tour comes as President Barack Obama’s government weighs whether to approve TransCanada’s $5.4 billion link between Alberta’s oil sands and the U.S. Gulf Coast as production in the province surges.
- 2014/01/16: CBC: Neil Young’s anti-oilsands comments draw fire from industry
- 2014/01/16: PaiD: Some Interesting And Encouraging Poll Results
- 2014/01/16: BCLSB: Dean Del Maestro Trashes Neil Young For Being A Californian
- 2014/01/16: PSinclair: Neil Young: No Hearts of Gold in Tar Sands Rush
- 2014/01/16: DCournoyer: Neil Young, the oil sands and shifting political loyalties in Fort McMurray
- 2014/01/16: PGraham: Thank you, Neil Young, for telling the truth
- 2014/01/15: BCLSB: At Issue: Does Fort Mc Smell?
- 2014/01/14: CensoredNews: Video ‘Honor the Treaties’ kicks off with Neil Young and the tarsands resistance
- 2014/01/14: TheCanadian: Neil Young amps up national oil sands debate
- 2014/01/14: MSimon: Neil Young Beats Up Stephen Harper. Again.
- 2014/01/14: ED: Neil Young Rocks
- 2014/01/13: CBC: Neil Young responds to PMO’s defence of oilsands
- 2014/01/13: CPW: Canadian Rocker Neil Young Blasts Stephen Harper, Alberta Tar Sands
- 2014/01/12: TheCanadian: Harper fires back at Neil Young’s anti-Tar Sands tour
- 2014/01/12: MSimon: Neil Young: A Canadian Legend Blasts the Con Regime
The sad case of Ambassador to USA Gary Doer:
What’s the state of the West Coast salmon fishery?
- 2014/01/17: TheCanadian: First Nation blockades water intake construction over salmon impacts
- 2014/01/16: AlexandraMorton: Prime Minister of Canada opens door to more salmon farms in BC
- 2014/01/16: TheCanadian: Harper Government quietly mulls BC salmon farm expansion
Meanwhile in BC:
- 2014/01/19: PeakEnergy: Woodside looking to join Canadian [BC] LNG boom
- 2014/01/18: NNW: BC NDP announces when it will choose leader – Sept. 24-27, via a phone and Internet voting system
- 2014/01/17: TheCanadian: Peace Valley’s “extraordinary” farmland could feed a million people, agrologists tell Site C Dam review
- 2014/01/13: PI: British Columbia’s LNG Boom
- 2014/01/13: PI: Carbon footprint of B.C. LNG boom could rival Alberta’s oilsands
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2014/01/16: BLongstaff: The tar sands — our climate change nemesis
- 2014/01/14: TheCanadian: New federal study: Oilsands bitumen sinks in water
Also in Alberta:
- 2014/01/17: WCEL: Canadians have a right to know about fracking, tar sands chemicals
- 2014/01/15: Tyee: If Every Norwegian’s a Millionaire, Why’s Alberta in Hock?
- 2014/01/15: CBC: TransCanada will look at rail if Keystone XL pipeline rejected
- 2014/01/15: CBC: No ‘plan B’ for Keystone XL, TransCanada CEO says
- 2014/01/13: TStar: Alberta the leader in disturbing Canada’s landscape, says study
  Alberta landscape disturbed by industry or agriculture totals about 410,000 square kilometres, according to a Global Forest Watch analysis.
- 2014/01/12: TheCanadian: Yet another CNRL leak probed by Alberta regulator in Cold Lake
In the Maritimes:
- 2014/01/15: CBC: Plaster Rock derailment cleanup shrouded in secrecy
And on the American political front:
- 2014/01/18: TP:JR: California Gov. Brown Declares Drought Emergency Amid Broken Heat Records And Low Reservoirs
- 2014/01/17: UCSUSA: Drought Emergency Declared in California
- 2014/01/17: OilChange: Drought emergency in California raises stakes on fracking fight
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: Fracking Chemicals In North Carolina Will Remain Secret, Industry-Funded Commission Rules
- 2014/01/16: UCSUSA:B: New UCS Report: Companies Can Anonymously Influence Climate Policy Through Their Business and Trade Associations
- 2014/01/16: UCSUSA: Major Companies Disagree with Trade Groups on Climate Policy
- 2014/01/15: Grist: North Dakota’s top oil regulator is also its top oil promoter
- 2014/01/15: ERW: Insight: RPS policies are driving wind turbine innovation
- 2014/01/14: AutoBG: North Carolina now charging $100-per-year EV road-use fee
- 2014/01/14: NewsObserver: NC fracking panel passes chemical disclosure rule
  Fracking companies won the right to keep secret the chemical cocktails they pump underground during shale gas drilling in North Carolina under a chemical disclosure rule approved Tuesday by the N.C. Mining and Energy Commission. The public safety standard will help the energy companies protect their secret sauce used in natural gas drilling, but critics said it would also keep residents in the dark about potent chemicals used near local farms and waterways.
- 2014/01/14: CleanTechnica: Crazy Solar Story
- 2014/01/14: PSinclair: D. R. Tucker: Resentment Rules the Right
- 2014/01/14: RTCC: Northeastern US states tighten carbon trading scheme
  Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative announces 45% cut in size of emissions cap in bid to boost market prices
- 2014/01/13: CCP: Illinois Residents Demand a Ban on Fracking
The Keystone XL wheel grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:
- 2014/01/16: Grist: Why exploding trains are the new Keystone XL
- 2014/01/15: CBC: No ‘plan B’ for Keystone XL, TransCanada CEO says
- 2014/01/13: ICN: Keystone XL: Texas High Court Gives Hope to Landowners in Eminent Domain Fight
The GOP War on Women continues:
- 2014/01/17: ACLU: Federal Court Strikes Down Demeaning North Carolina Ultrasound Law
- 2014/01/17: Salon: Federal court permanently blocks North Carolina’s narrated ultrasound law
- 2014/01/16: Wonkette: GOP Has New New NEW Plan To Woo The Ladies But For Reals This Time
- 2014/01/15: Guardian(UK): US supreme court justices appear sceptical of abortion clinic buffer zones
  Court conservatives may be ready to strike down Massachusetts abortion clinic buffer zone law on free speech grounds
- 2014/01/13: CDreams: US High Court Rejects ‘Callous and Unconstitutional’ Abortion Ban
The impacts of the sequestration are coming home:
- 2014/01/17: UCSUSA:B: How Sequestration Made Me a Citizen Scientist
It’s beginning to look like the West Virginia coal chemical spill is going to be with us for a while:
- 2014/01/18: TP:JR: Experts Warn West Virginia Water May Still Be Unsafe
- 2014/01/18: WSWS: West Virginia residents speak out on chemical disaster
- 2014/01/17: BBerg: Freedom Industries Files Bankruptcy After Elk River Spill
- 2014/01/17: CDreams: Week After West Virginia Chemical Spill, Company Files for Bankruptcy
- 2014/01/17: CBC: Freedom Industries, company blamed for West Virginia spill, files for bankruptcy
- 2014/01/17: CDreams: CDC: West Virginia Water Not Safe for Pregnant Women
- 2014/01/17: CDreams: Mistakes of West, Texas Repeated In West Virginia
- 2014/01/17: TreeHugger: Recovery from WV Coal Chemical Spill Continues – What Next?
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: Pregnant Women Warned Not To Drink Water 48 Hours After West Virginia Told Residents It Was Safe
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: Chemical Spilled In West Virginia Can Cause Cancer, Lawsuit Alleges
- 2014/01/16: EnvEcon: The key to effective regulation is effective enforcement
- 2014/01/15: Guardian(UK): West Virginia company behind water contamination cited at second facility
  State inspectors found five violations at storage facility – Company storing coal-cleaning chemicals at second site
- 2014/01/15: RReich: Fear is Why Workers in Red States Vote Against Their Economic Self-Interest
- 2014/01/15: TP:JR: Freedom Industries’ Other Chemical Storage Site Is Unsafe Too
- 2014/01/15: TreeHugger: West Virginians demand more accountability after chemical spill leaves 300,000 without water
- 2014/01/15: Salon: Shocking negligence revealed at West Virginia chemical facility
- 2014/01/15: Salon: Safety violations found at another Freedom chemical facility
- 2014/01/15: TRP: Freedom Industries Pisses on West Virginia While It’s Down
- 2014/01/15: CDreams: Poorest at Risk, Skepticism High as Officials OK Water Safety in West Virginia
- 2014/01/15: WSWS: The West Virginia chemical disaster
- 2014/01/14: BBerg: Lawyers Aim Bigger Than Freedom Industries in West Virginia Chemical Spill
- 2014/01/14: TP:JR: Does West Virginia Have The Political Will To Prevent The Next Water Disaster?
- 2014/01/14: DemNow: West Virginia Water Crisis: Behind Chemical Spill, Gaping Holes in State and Federal Regulation
- 2014/01/14: DemNow: Erin Brockovich: After Chemical Spill, West Virginians Organizing “Stronger Than I’ve Ever Seen”
- 2014/01/14: TP:JR: Water Contamination In West Virginia May Have Started Weeks Ago, Residents Believe
- 2014/01/14: BBC: West Virginia chemical spill sparks environmental debate
- 2014/01/14: Wonkette: President Of Company That Wrecked West Virginia Water Is Too Tired And Thirsty For Your Stupid Questions
- 2014/01/14: TP:JR: Boehner Insists No New Regulations Needed After West Virginia’s Major Chemical Spill
- 2014/01/14: RTCC: US coal industry faces scrutiny after West Virginia chemical spill
- 2014/01/14: WSWS: Lack of regulation behind West Virginia water disaster
- 2014/01/13: TP:JR: West Virginia’s Water Catastrophe Reveals Gaping Holes In Government Oversight
- 2014/01/13: Resilience: 300,000 West Virginians Told Not to Drink Water After Coal Chemical Spill, 600+ Sick
- 2014/01/13: CBC: West Virginia water ban lifted in parts after chemical spill
- 2014/01/13: CPunch: West Virginia’s Message to the Nation
- 2014/01/13: TRP: A West Virginia Friend Talks to the Rude Pundit
- 2014/01/13: Grist: West Virginia caught unprepared for contamination of water supply, despite warnings
- 2014/01/13: DeSmogBlog: Retraction and Apology for Incorrect Claims About West Virginia Chemical Origins
- 2014/01/12: DeSmogBlog: Revealed: Koch Brothers’ Georgia-Pacific Supplied Coal Chemical Contaminating West Virginia River
- 2014/01/12: GLaden: The 4-methylcyclohexane methanol spill in West Virginia (Coal cleaning chemical)
- 2014/01/12: CDreams: Four Days On, Chemical Spill Consuming W. Virginia
  Area residents to be without water for ‘days’ with no clear answers on extent of damage
It looks like Mr. Christie has put the kibosh on his 2016 electoral prospects:
- 2014/01/15: CDreams: The Real Chris Christie Scandal: His Policies
- 2014/01/15: TP:JR: Influence Pipeline: Christie Administration Tried To Jam Through Project To Benefit Top Operative, Officials Allege
- 2014/01/14: Grist: Christie’s bullying fails to push pipeline through nature preserve
- 2014/01/14: WSWS: New Jersey governor faces deepening crisis over bridge scandal
- 2014/01/13: TruthDig: The Trouble With Chris Christie by Chris Hedges
- 2014/01/13: CDreams: Did Christie Use Hurricane Relief Funds to Help Himself Get Reelected?
- 2014/01/13: Guardian(UK): Christie facing fresh investigations as 2016 presidential bid under threat
- 2014/01/13: CBC: Chris Christie faces probe over Superstorm Sandy funds
At what point do you stop listening to the pretty lies and realize you’ve been had?
- 2014/01/17: CSW: Big Green confronts Obama on climate-energy policy link
- 2014/01/17: GreenGrok: On Meeting Obama, His Innovation Initiative, and His Priorities
- 2014/01/17: Grist: Big green groups demand an end to Obama’s “all of the above” energy strategy
- 2014/01/17: RTCC: Obama faces Congress challenge as US ‘climate scepticism’ rises 7%
- 2014/01/17: CDreams: Groups to Obama: Your Fossil Fuel-Driven Policies Equal ‘Catastrophic Climate Future’
- 2014/01/17: CDreams: Calls Intensify for Obama to Fulfill Campaign Promise on GMO Labeling
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2014/01/17: CBC: U.S. urges railways to reroute oil around urban centres — Voluntary measures include going slower through public areas
  U.S. transportation officials have asked rail companies that transport oil to look at bypassing major urban areas and reducing speed in areas where the public may be at risk. Rail executives met with U.S. transportation secretary Anthony Foxx on Thursday to discuss issues arising from derailments and accidents involving oil transported by rail.
- 2014/01/17: Grist: Safety rules to prevent oil-train explosions delayed
- 2014/01/16: CDreams: Is the USDA Really Dumb Enough To Approve Agent Orange Corn?
- 2014/01/16: Grist: Pebble Mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay could be environmentally devastating, EPA says
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: EPA: Pebble Mine Means ‘Long-Term Risk To Salmon, Wildlife, And Native Alaska Cultures’
- 2014/01/15: NOAANews: Eileen Sobeck named assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries
- 2014/01/15: AP: EPA: Mining poses risks to Bristol Bay salmon
- 2014/01/15: SciAm:PI: DOE’s $3 million will support a national network of clean energy incubators
- 2014/01/14: FuelFix: New regulations for oil on rail cars to come in 2015
- 2014/01/13: Grist: Tests show Texas well water polluted by fracking, despite EPA assurances
- 2014/01/13: Grist: Flood pressure: How climate disasters put FEMA’s flood insurance program underwater
- 2014/01/13: DeSmogBlog: New Carbon Rules for Power Plants A Missed Opportunity To Rein in Natural Gas Emissions, Critics Say
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2014/01/17: ScienceInsider: Omnibus Bill Gives Nudge to Public Access
- 2014/01/17: TP:JR: Mitch McConnell Wants To Use Unprecedented Tactic To Reverse Carbon Pollution Rules
- 2014/01/17: Grist: Flood money: How Congress is botching the effort to climate-proof insurance
- 2014/01/17: HillHeat: Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), New Climate Research Subcommittee Chair, Thinks Climate Science ‘Arrogant’
- 2014/01/17: Wonkette: House GOP, Unable To Help Itself, Chooses Climate Change Denier To Head Environment Subcommittee
- 2014/01/17: Grist: U.S. CO2 emissions are on the rise, and coal-loving members of Congress want to keep it that way
- 2014/01/16: Guardian(UK): Will Barack Obama’s climate agenda survive a Republican pushback?
  Top climate change officials appear in front of senate committee as Republicans launch bid to block Obama’s ‘war on coal’
- 2014/01/16: Grist: Dumb cuts and dumber riders: The green take on the new federal budget
- 2014/01/15: UCSUSA:B: How to Fix Flood Insurance: Delaying the Biggert-Waters Act is Not the Answer [congress]
- 2014/01/15: CDreams: Big Coal Undercuts Landmark US Overseas Investment Policy
  […] a surprise addendum to a massive U.S. government spending bill would disallow the Export-Import Bank from implementing its new rule, which was unveiled in December. The provision, made public Monday evening, also guts a court-ordered greenhouse gas cap put in place in 2009 to force OPIC to set limits on the carbon emissions of its investments.
- 2014/01/15: ERabett:BSD: Sen. Inhofe, got any coastal vacation properties where you want to sell options?
- 2014/01/15: CleanTechnica: 3 EV Tax Credits Now Gone Due To Unproductive Congress
- 2014/01/14: ICN: Budget Deal Protects Fossil Fuel Interests
- 2014/01/14: DeSmogBlog: First On 2014 Congressional Agenda: Dismantle EPA Protections That Save Lives
- 2014/01/13: RawStory: Global warming denier Jim Inhofe: ‘Fewer and fewer’ senators believe in climate change ‘hoax’
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2014/01/17: DeSmogBlog: ALEC Plans Massive Environmental Attack For 2014
- 2014/01/16: OilChange: How Companies Anonymously Influence Climate Policy
- 2014/01/14: CleanTechnica: ALEC Gain An Inside Track On Colorado Solar
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2014/01/16: Resilience: Seven sustainable technologies
- 2014/01/15: Resilience: Charting Collapseniks
- 2014/01/15: TMoS: A Reformed Capitalism for the 21st Century
- 2014/01/15: JacobinMag: Alive in the Sunshine
  There’s no way toward a sustainable future without tackling environmentalism’s old stumbling blocks: consumption and jobs. And the way to do that is through a universal basic income.
- 2014/01/14: CCurrents: The Negative Natural Interest Rate And Uneconomic Growth
- 2014/01/13: Guardian(UK): Any plausible pathway to sustainable development must involve the state
  States cannot abdicate responsibility and rely on the private sector to lead sustainability; their choices will be the central narrative of 21st century
- 2014/01/13: Resilience: Postcards from a horizontal world
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2014/01/18: P3: What Really Is the Worst That Can Happen?
- 2014/01/17: Resilience: Collapse? Maybe not.
How do the corporate media measure up?
- 2014/01/16: CDreams: What Gives? Climate Warnings Up, Corporate News Climate Coverage Down
- 2014/01/15: Grist: Major newspaper coverage of climate change plummeted last year
- 2014/01/15: KSJT: NYTimes, Al Jazeera, New Yorker, AP – SCARY! No news like bad news: East coast sea level, Western desert dust, CA drought, fracking worries everywhere
- 2014/01/15: TP:JR: Roger Ailes Bio Reveals Just How Anti-Science, Anti-Clean Energy The Fox News Chief Is
- 2014/01/15: RNE: 60 Minutes’ agenda-driven bastardisation of clean energy news
- 2014/01/14: TP:JR: Silence Of The Lambs: Climate Coverage Drops At Major U.S. Newspapers, Flatlines On TV
- 2014/01/14: Wunderground: DIRECTV Drops The Weather Channel
- 2014/01/13: GreenGrok: Americans, Cars, and George Will’s Habit of Getting It Wrong
- 2014/01/13: CCP: Australia: The Big Oil-backed climate denier who hoodwinked Fairfax
Here is something for your library:
- 2014/01/16: Resilience: David Holmgren’s “Crash on Demand”
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2014/01/18: ERabett: Senator Whitehouse on the Response of Industry to Climate Change
- 2014/01/17: LeDaro: California: Climate change and erratic weather
- 2014/01/16: GLaden: The Polar Vortex Explained in 2 Minutes [Holdren]
- 2014/01/15: CSW: Unleash John Holdren — beyond the Polar Vortex video
- 2014/01/14: PSinclair: CBC: Mike Mann on the Vortex
- 2014/01/13: TP:JR: Showtime To Launch Landmark Climate TV Series ‘Years Of Living Dangerously’ In April
- 2014/01/13: BCLSB: Neil Young And The Tar Sands
As for podcasts:
- 2014/01/18: CBC:Q&Q: #3) The Uphill March of the Penguins #6) Organic Flow Battery
Meanwhile among the ‘Sue the Bastards!’ contingent:
- 2014/01/17: CBC: Northern Gateway pipeline report draws lawsuit — B.C. environmental groups seek to block cabinet approval
- 2014/01/17: Grist: The first lawsuit against Obama’s new coal limits just got filed
- 2014/01/16: ICN: Group Sues Obama Admin Over Keystone XL’s Impact on Endangered Fox
  Lawsuit alleges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is witholding information about potential impacts of the pipeline on the northern swift fox.
- 2014/01/15: GET: Federal Administrative Court Confirms Illegality of Moratorium Shutdown Order for Biblis Nulear Power Plants
- 2014/01/14: WNN: German nuclear shutdown unlawful
  The forced closure of RWE’s Biblis nuclear power plant after the Fukushima accident was unlawful, the German Supreme Administrative Court has ruled. The utility is now likely to sue for considerable damages.
- 2014/01/14: CSW: Michael Mann defamation lawsuit — calling on the judge to apply the law of the case doctrine
- 2014/01/14: QuarkSoup: Lawyers Bail on Mark Steyn
- 2014/01/13: CDreams: Supreme Court Sides With ‘Notorious Patent Bully Monsanto’
It looks like this BP trial over the Gulf oil spill is going to take a long while:
- 2014/01/18: BBerg: BP Can’t Stop Seafood Payments, Gulf Spill Lawyers Say
  BP Plc should keep paying more than $2.3 billion to seafood-industry interests as part of a settlement of claims over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill while a fraud probe tied to the accord is pending, plaintiffs’ attorneys said. BP is overreaching by seeking to suspend all payments to seafood workers and companies while the U.S. Justice Department investigates whether a lawyer claiming to represent eligible deckhands falsified client lists, the plaintiffs’ committee overseeing the BP settlement said in a court filing today.
- 2014/01/15: Reuters: Analysis: BP’s U.S. Gulf oil spill settlement challenges may backfire
- 2014/01/10: FuelFix: Court upholds 2012 oil spill settlement
  Over BP’s objections, a federal appeals court on Friday upheld a judge’s approval of the company’s multibillion-dollar settlement with lawyers for businesses and residents who claim the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cost them money.
- 2014/01/12: BBC: BP loses bid over Gulf oil payouts
  BP has lost an appeal to cancel the terms of its multi-billion-dollar settlement with businesses over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. A US federal appeals court on Saturday upheld the terms of the original 2012 settlement. The UK oil giant has supported compensation for businesses harmed by the disaster. But it argued that the terms of the existing deal meant that some huge sums were being paid for false claims.
Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:
- 2014/01/17: CleanTechnica: 2013 Clean Energy Investments Down On Previous Years
- 2014/01/17: RNE: Even India could reach nearly 100% renewables by 2051
- 2014/01/16: NBF: Clean energy index has recovered to 40% of 2008 levels and clean energy investments are down from 2011 levels
- 2014/01/15: Resilience: Why EIA, IEA, and Randers’ 2052 Energy Forecasts are Wrong
- 2014/01/15: TP:JR: How D.C.’s Sewage Will Soon Generate Electricity
- 2014/01/15: Guardian(UK): Global investment in clean energy falls for second year running
  New figures show investment fell to $254bn in 2013, with a drop in Europe of 41%
- 2014/01/14: Resilience: The Grand Challenge of the Energy Transition
- 2014/01/14: Guardian(UK): UN climate chief calls for tripling of clean energy investment
  Christiana Figueres says $1 trillion a year is required for the transformation needed to stay within 2C of warming
- 2014/01/13: OFW: Why EIA, IEA, and Randers’ 2052 Energy Forecasts are Wrong
- 2014/01/13: RNE: The top 10 clean energy developments of 2013
- 2014/01/13: Grist: Here’s another reason why renewables are at an unfair disadvantage
What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?
- 2014/01/16: RNE: 2013: Year of surging hydro, declining coal and lower demand
- 2014/01/13: SciAm: A Global Transition to Renewable Energy Will Take Many Decades [Preview] by Vaclav Smil
- 2014/01/13: SciAm:TCW: Vaclav Smil: “The great hope for a quick and sweeping transition to renewable energy is wishful thinking”
Hey! Let’s contaminate the aquifers for thousands of years! It’ll be a fracking gas!
- 2014/01/16: TP:JR: Fracking Chemicals In North Carolina Will Remain Secret, Industry-Funded Commission Rules
- 2014/01/16: FAIR: USA Today: Fracking Makes You Rich! (And Also Maybe Sick, Too)
- 2014/01/13: Grist: Tests show Texas well water polluted by fracking, despite EPA assurances
- 2014/01/13: TheCanadian: Researchers tackle fracking radiation
- 2014/01/13: TheCanadian: Associated Press investigation confirms fracking water issues in 4 states
- 2014/01/13: Guardian(UK): Fracking bribes will tie us into a future of high energy prices
  The UK government is steaming ahead with shale gas – while failing to support renewable energy and energy efficiency
On the coal front:
- 2014/01/16: ABC(Au): Rio Tinto books record production of bauxite, iron ore and thermal coal
- 2014/01/15: BBerg: Rio Tinto Slashes Costs as Iron-Ore, Coal Output Hit Records
  […] Rio’s attributable thermal coal production was a record 26.8 million tons in 2013, up 12 percent from the year before.
- 2014/01/15: CNN: Black tide of coal overwhelms climate goals
  When policymakers and industry leaders gather next week for the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, they will celebrate a vision of what most of us want tomorrow’s energy system to be: clean, sustainable and available to all. While I share this wish for our energy future, the path we are currently on is bleak — and black. Nothing does a better job of exposing the widening gap between hope and reality than the annual coal market outlook we released a few weeks ago.
- 2014/01/14: UCSUSA:B: Even as Coal Use Declines, Most States Are Still Dependent on Coal Imports
- 2014/01/14: UCSUSA: Despite Drop in Coal Use, Most States Remain Dependent on Coal Imports, Draining Billions from Local Economies
- 2013/12/16: IEA: Global coal demand growth slows slightly, IEA says in latest 5-year outlook
On the gas and oil front:
- 2014/01/17: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Dated Brent Spot….106.48
  WTI Cushing Spot…..94.37
- 2014/01/17: TP:JR: Oil Companies Will Soon Use Drones To Find Deep-Sea Fossil Fuels
- 2014/01/17: PeakEnergy: Chasing the Dream of Half-Price Gasoline from Natural Gas
- 2014/01/15: WSWS: Brazil’s PetrobrÃ¡s sells off Peruvian stake to China
- 2014/01/14: G&M: Diluted bitumen sinks when mixed with sediments, federal report says
- 2014/01/13: Grist: Lifting the crude-oil export ban would worsen pollution and climate change
And in pipeline news:
- 2014/01/13: Grist: New Jersey decides not to run a gas pipeline through one of its last spots of wilderness
Ships and boats and trains — How to tranport the stuff?
- 2014/01/17: ICN: Does Keystone XL Have a Place in the Oil-by-Rail Safety Debate?
  Analysis: The realities of the oil market make it clear that even if the Keystone and similar pipelines were operating, they would not be supplanting rail.
- 2014/01/17: CBC: U.S. urges railways to reroute oil around urban centres — Voluntary measures include going slower through public areas
- 2014/01/16: NakedCapitalism: Are Fracking Fluids to Blame for Rail Car Explosions?
- 2014/01/16: Grist: Why exploding trains are the new Keystone XL
- 2014/01/14: Grist: Fracking chemicals may make oil extra explosive
- 2014/01/13: CBC: Crude oil shipments, tanker punctures top of agenda at rail talks
  Safety authorities in Canada, U.S. have called for upgrades to older rail tankers for years Experts from Canada’s rail industry meet in Ottawa on Monday to discuss how to make North America’s fleet of DOT-111 rail tankers safer following a string of recent derailments and explosions involving crude oil. The Canadian Transportation Research Forum (CTRF) is hosting a meeting of representatives of Canada’s rail companies, government regulators, the Department of National Defence and even the United States Embassy to examine, among other items, the risks of growing rail shipments of crude by 111 rail tank cars.
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
- 2014/01/16: Resilience: End of the Road: How Australia’s auto industry ignored peak oil
- 2014/01/16: TreeHugger: Peak Oil Is Irrelevant
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2014/01/18: CleanTechnica: Souped Up Biogas System Turns Brewery Into Green Powerhouse
- 2014/01/16: NatureN: Chemical treatment could cut cost of biofuel — Solvent easily breaks down tough plant matter into sugars without costly enzymes
The answer my friend…
- 2014/01/16: PSinclair: Chinese Wind Power on the Rise
- 2014/01/15: RTCC: Google to invest $75m in second Texas wind farm
  182MW Panhandle 2 wind farm is communications giant’s 15th renewable energy investment
- 2014/01/15: ERW: Insight: RPS policies are driving wind turbine innovation
- 2014/01/14: PSinclair: Wind Turbines: No Effect on Home Values. But We Knew That
- 2014/01/13: NBF: US Wind Power subsidies are paused but they continue for the ten years after construction
- 2014/01/13: RNE: Wind farm noise complainants and anti-wind groups: how many, how large?
- 2014/01/13: RNE: Graph of the Day: Australia’s low cost wind power
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2014/01/18: CleanTechnica: Largest Single-Unit Concentrated Solar Power Plant In World – Shams 1 [in Abu Dhabi]
- 2014/01/18: RNE: Solar saved southern states from new and costly demand peaks
- 2014/01/17: CassandrasLegacy: Photovoltaic energy already competitive without incentives in Europe
- 2014/01/16: ClimateShifts: Solar Power Craze on Wall St. Propels Start-Up
- 2014/01/16: CleanTechnica: US Comes Out Top In Utility-Scale Solar For 2013
- 2014/01/15: CleanTechnica: UK Large-Scale Solar PV Saw 600% Growth In 2013
- 2014/01/15: CleanTechnica: Huge Thermal Solar Potential In Canada
- 2014/01/15: CleanTechnica: UK Rises Above 500,000 Solar Homes, Prices Keep Dropping (Infographic)
- 2014/01/15: Grist: Native sun: In the Deep South, a solar farm rises on a former cotton plantation
- 2014/01/14: CleanTechnica: Crazy Solar Story
- 2014/01/14: BBerg: England’s Clouds Part for Solar as Panels Carpet Fields
- 2014/01/13: SwissInfo: Solar power output almost doubled in 2013
- 2014/01/13: CleanTechnica: 110 MW Concentrated Solar Energy Power Plant Being Developed In Chile
- 2014/01/13: CleanTechnica: Californian Solar Star 579 MW Solar Project Begins Operations
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2014/01/18: JQuiggin: A few more observations on nuclear power
- 2014/01/16: PeakEnergy: The nuclear renaissance is stone cold dead
- 2014/01/15: WNN: More Russian reactors for [Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant]
- 2014/01/15: BBC: Japan’s Toshiba to buy 60% stake in UK nuclear venture
- 2014/01/14: EUO: Russia to build nuclear units in Hungary
- 2013/12/16: Dawn(Pk): Nuclear Karachi
  Work has started on preparing the site for two large nuclear power plants in Karachi. Each of these reactors will be larger than the combined power of all the nuclear reactors currently operating in Pakistan. This will be by far the largest nuclear construction project ever in Pakistan. It is not too late to ask a few basic questions so that people, especially those living in Karachi, know what they may be letting themselves in for. Everyone knows the new reactors are being purchased from China. They will be designed and built by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). What people may not know is that the reactors will be based on a design known as the ACP-1000 that is still under development by this Chinese nuclear power company. In effect, Pakistanis are buying reactors for the Karachi site that so far exist only on paper and in computer programmes — there is no operating reactor in China based on this design.
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2014/01/17: RNE: When all the air conditioners run at once
- 2014/01/15: TreeHugger: Google gobbles up Nest, gets its foot in the door of the Smart Home
- 2014/01/15: RNE: Stand-alone power seen viable as towns look to leave the grid
- 2014/01/13: PSinclair: Icestorm Blackout? Time to Power Up the Prius?
How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?
- 2014/01/18: PeakEnergy: Utilities hail electric cars to cut bills, reduce emissions
- 2014/01/17: RNE: Solar puts heat on big generators as demand peaks subside
- 2014/01/16: CleanTechnica: ALEC & Xcel Scheming Behind Closed Doors?
- 2014/01/16: CleanTechnica: The Double Agent & The Gorilla, Or How Rooftop Solar Got Its Groove Back
- 2014/01/14: CleanTechnica: ALEC Gain An Inside Track On Colorado Solar
- 2014/01/14: CleanTechnica: Solar City Takes 32% Of 2013 3Q US PV Residential Market As Utilities Squirm
- 2014/01/14: CleanTechnica: Colorado Rooftop Solar Under Threat
- 2014/01/13: RNE: Utilities hail electric cars to cut bills, reduce emissions
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2014/01/19: CleanTechnica: SlimStyle LED Review ($10 LED Available At Home Depot)
- 2014/01/15: ABC(Au): 26 tips to beat the heat without air-conditioning
- 2014/01/13: TheConversation: How to keep your house cool in a heatwave
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2014/01/17: AutoBG: Expert: 54.5 mpg CAFE standard can be reached without many plug-ins
- 2014/01/13: RealEconomics: Is there a role for hydrogen powered fuel-cell cars? Well, it looks like Toyota is about to find out
As for Energy Storage:
- 2014/01/16: PeakEnergy: Cheap, Efficient Organic Flow Battery Materials From Harvard
- 2014/01/15: RNE: Small scale battery storage costs tipped to fall quickly
- 2014/01/13: TP:JR: How A New Rhubarb-Based Battery Could Massively Increase Renewable Energy Use
- 2014/01/13: CleanTechnica: Hook Up Your Solar Panels To A Giant Rhubarb Battery
- 2014/01/13: RTCC: New battery could solve storage problems of renewables
- 2014/01/12: NBF: Low-cost materials could make storing hours of power from a wind farm economically feasible
What do we have in (weekly) lists?
- 2014/01/18: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #3 by John Hartz
- 2014/01/17: FukuLeaks: Fukushima News Roundup
- 2014/01/13: FukuLeaks: Fukushima News Roundup
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

Note: You may notice my denialist coverage flagging. I am finding it increasingly difficult to give any attention to these people.
- 2014/01/14: DeSmogBlog: Mont Pelerin Society Revealed As Home To Leading Pushers Of Climate Science Denial
- 2014/01/14: Stoat: In which our hero tries an interesting new variant of the Galileo defence
- 2014/01/14: TMoS: Who Says There’s No Scientific Consensus?
- 2014/01/17: TFTJO: The unsustainable dullness of common sense
- 2014/01/14: HotWhopper: Hoity Toity Christopher Monckton sez the Earth is losing energy and other silliness at WUWT
- 2014/01/14: Grist: This chart makes it painfully obvious that climate deniers are ridiculous
- 2014/01/13: ATTPh: Watt about Bob and William
- 2014/01/13: TMoS: Interesting Thoughts on Climate Change
- 2014/01/13: DeSmogBlog: Range Resources Spokesman Matt Pitzarella Misrepresented Education Credentials, Never Received Business Ethics Degree
- 2014/01/13: PSinclair: Puffing Lindzen
- 2014/01/12: DeSmogBlog: Recommended Reading: The Agony of Frank Luntz in The Atlantic
The Pattern Recognition In Physics farrago played out this week:
2014/01/18: GLaden: Science Denialists Make Fake Journal, Get Shut Down.
2014/01/18: ATTPh: Pattern Recognition in Physics
2014/01/18: TFTJO: The problem with pattern recognition
2014/01/17: ScienceInsider: Alleging ‘Malpractice’ With Climate Skeptic Papers, Publisher Kills Journal
2014/01/17: Stoat: Ship of fools
2014/01/17: JEB: Recognising a pattern
2014/01/17: ERabett: Ruinenpornography
2014/01/17: BCLSB: Copernicus Publishing Terminates Pattern Recognition In Physics
2014/01/17: BCLSB: On Pattern Recognition In Physics
2014/01/17: Tamino: Malpractice
2014/01/17: RetractionWatch: “Climate skeptic” journal shuttered following “malpractice” in “nepotistic” reviewer selections

This week in intimidation:
2014/01/09: AlterNet: Why Growing Harassment of Scientists by Climate Change Deniers Is So Dangerous

So why is nothing getting done?
- 2014/01/18: TMoS: Is It Really This Simple?
- 2014/01/17: RealEconomics: Backsliding on climate change
- 2014/01/17: TMoS: How Did We Become So Dysfunctional?
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2014/01/15: ATTPh: Global energy accumulation
- 2014/01/15: Grist: This scientist summed up the 2,200-page IPCC report in haiku
- 2014/01/15: Wunderground: 2013: A Warm and Wet Year in the U.S.
- 2014/01/17: TP:JR: Unfortunately, The World Is Still Barreling Towards Climate Cataclysm
- 2014/01/14: RTCC: Mohamed Nasheed: climate denying Conservatives “risk irrelevancy”
  Former Maldives President says right wing parties on “wrong side of history” if they continue to promote climate denial
- 2014/01/13: P3: If Something Has Never Existed Before, It Is Unregulated
- 2014/01/13: PSinclair: Newsweek Science Writer Looks back on Infamous 1975 “Ice Age” Piece
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- Cli-Fi Books
- Global Forest Watch Canada
- Our Radioactive Ocean
- BP: Energy Outlook
  The BP Energy Outlook identifies long-term energy trends, and then develops projections for world energy markets to 2035
- Wiki: Coccidioidomycosis [aka cocci, “valley fever”, “California fever”, “desert rheumatism”,& “San Joaquin Valley fever”]
- United States Drought Monitor
- ERL: Environmental Research Letters
- FutureLearn
- Rights of Nature
- Risky Business — The Economic Risks of Climate Change in the United States
- Future Proof Your Home
- Wiki: Aarhus Convention
- iSTAR – NERC Ice Sheet Stability Programme — Investigating the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
- AVISO: El NiÃ±o bulletin
- AVISO: Mean Sea Level rise
- IPCC
Low Key Plug

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

A Simple Plea

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

<regards>

-het

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

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

“Food Grows Where Water Flows” –sign above a dessicated river bed in California’s Central Valley
- Global Warming Links
- Global Warming News Archive
- Energy
- Energy News
- Environmental Issues
- —
- H.E. Taylor (homepage)
Last modified January 19, 2014

11 thoughts on “Another Week in the Ecological Crisis, January 19, 2014”

Mike Haseler says:

January 21, 2014 at 2:13 am

Hi I am writing to you on behalf on the Scottish Climate & Energy Forum, we are conducting a survey of those interesting in the climate debate which should be of interest to all involved.

The main focus is on the education and work experience of participants, but it will also assess employment and social factors for their relationship with views on climate.

We would be very grateful if you would take the time to complete the survey. The responses are confidential.

The url is: http://scef.org.uk/survey/index.php/868721/lang/en.

regards,

Mike Haseler

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PaulinMI says:

January 21, 2014 at 4:09 pm

What debate?

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mandas says:

January 21, 2014 at 4:57 pm

Yes Mike – what debate? You mean the one between real scientists and lying deniers?

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PaulinMI says:

January 21, 2014 at 9:48 pm

Maybe he means the debate on the time line for reducing emmisions to zero?

Whaddya say Mike?

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Wow says:

January 21, 2014 at 10:27 pm

Why should he say what debate when you’re running around like a headless chook squawking various claims of what the debate is, pauline?

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freddy says:

January 27, 2014 at 4:57 pm

wow, poor argument, please explain again what you think on the subject because nobody can follow this nonsense

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Wow says:

January 27, 2014 at 8:30 pm

yes, poor argument. Actually, no argument at all. As usual from you kai.

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Wow says:

January 29, 2014 at 3:30 am

kai, you’re unusually illogical and raving. Why the sudden upsurge in this aberrant activity from you?

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robby says:

February 4, 2014 at 9:47 am

Lying deniers. Is that a scientific term or an appeal to dogma. Glad to see the spirt of scientific skepticism and free inquiry are still alive.

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Wow says:

February 4, 2014 at 9:17 pm

Neither, robby.

It’s a description.

PS skepticism isn’t “I don’t believe you” in the face of evidence.

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mandas says:

February 7, 2014 at 11:57 am

“….Lying deniers. Is that a scientific term or an appeal to dogma…”

Since it is my post, I will answer for you robby.

It’s a scientific term. Lying – as in deliberately stating false information. Deniers – as in people people who ignore evidence that runs counter to their ideological worldview.

Any more questions?

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Sipping from the Internet Firehose…

January 19, 2014

Laugh. I dare ya:

Here’s your touch of surreal for the week:

Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:

Another leaked IPCC draft report. This time WG3 – Mitigation:

BP released their Energy Outlook 2014 this week:

The implicit attribution of blame in the Matthews paper caught some offstride:

A group of US billionaires has set up Risky Business to evaluate the climate change risks to business:

More vortices:

What do we have for warnings this week?

How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

And on the Bottom Line:

The world inches toward creating a global legal framework for ecological crime:

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

Various psychological angles arise in considerations of the ecological crisis:

A note on theFukushima disaster:

Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:

The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

While in Antarctica:

The food crisis is ongoing:

The state of the world’s fisheries is a concern. See also:

Food Prices are still problematic:

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

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

In the Western Pacific, Lingling has been circling East of the Philippines, soaking the Southern islands in the process:

Earlier in the Western Pacific, Tropical Cyclone Ian zapped the Tongan Islands:

Also in the Western Pacific, Tropical Cyclone June threatened New Caledonia:

In the South Indian Ocean, 09S spun up between Madagascar and the African shore:

Earlier in the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Colin headed South and dissipated:

While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

This week in notable weather:

This week in the New Normal — extreme weather:

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

Meanwhile on the GHG front:

And in the carbon cycle:

What’s up with volcanoes this week?

As for the temperature record:

Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

Every once in a while, someone reaches for a deep time perspective:

In the attribution debate:

What’s the State of the Oceans?:

What’s new in Biodiversity?

And on the extinction watch:

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

More GW impacts are being seen:

And then there are the world’s forests:

Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

Aerosols affect the climate, but they also affect people’s health:

Changes in natural cycles are showing up:

As for heatwaves and wild fires:

Corals are a bellwether of the ocean’s health:

Acidification is changing the oceans:

Glaciers are melting:

Sea levels are rising:

As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

On the mitigation front, consider transportation & GHG production:

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

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

What’s new in restoration?

While on the adaptation front:

Meanwhile in the journals:

And other significant documents:

In the science organizations:

More DIY science:

What’s new in models?

What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

Regarding Hansen:

Regarding Dessler:

Regarding Leibo:

Regarding Mann:

Meanwhile at the UN:

And on the carbon trading front:

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

South [& East] China Sea tension persists:

The fight over South Atlantic sea floor oil fields simmers in the background: