Another Week of Global Warming News, March 30, 2014

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

skip to bottom

Information is not Knowledge…Knowledge is not Wisdom

March 30, 2014

Chuckles, COP20+, WG2, Earth Hour, WMO, Ponder
CSLDF, Change?, Energiewende, Bottom Line, Cook
Fukushima: Note, News, Policies
Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, GMOs, Production
Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Forecasts, Extreme Weather, New Weather
GHGs, Aerosols, Weather Machine, Climate Sensitivity, Feedbacks, ENSO
Temperatures, Proxies, Satellites, Paleoclimate, Historical Climate, Biosphere, Extinctions
Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Smog & Health, Phenology
Tornadoes, Wildfires, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
Journals, Other Docs, Misc., Science Orgs, DIY, Models, Free Science, Levin, Mann, Tol, Pielke
International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Hormuz, South China Sea, Rare Earths, FQD, Treaties
Ukraine, Security, Activism, Divestment, H2O Biz, Fleck, Groundwater, Education, Innovation
National Politics: Britain, Europe, Australia, Abbott, CSG, MDBP, Tas Forest Deal
China, Asia, Middle East, Russia, South America
Canada, Lac-MÃ©gantic, Grain Backlog, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, North
America, Spills & Leaks, Birth Control, Silver, Keeling, AAAS, 2016, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
Ecological Economics, Recycling, IPAT, Apocalypso, Why We Fight
Fixes, Media, Books, Video, Courts, Chevron Vs. Equador, BP Trial
Energy, Transitions, Investments, Fracking, Oil & Gas, Corps, Pipelines, Transportation, Biofuel
Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, FITs, Grid, Utilities, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
Business, Insurance, FAQs, Other Lists, Quotes, Carbon Lobby, Intimidation, Clean Coal, Misc., Useful Links
Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig

Live and direct from the black humour hangout:

Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:

The IPCC Working Group 2 report has not yet been released, but there have been a lot of leaks and comments:

2014/03/30: BBC: Scientists struggle to complete climate impacts report
Negotiators worked through the night here in Yokohama in an effort to complete their review of a key report on the impacts of climate change.
2014/03/29: CSW: Previewing the new IPCC assessment of risks of climate change impacts
2014/03/29: TP:JR: Climate Change Already Impacting ‘All Continents’ According To New International Report
2014/03/29: PSinclair: Counting the Costs of Climate Change
2014/03/28: Guardian(UK): IPCC report: climate change felt ‘on all continents and across the oceans’
Leaked text of blockbuster report says changes in climate have already caused impacts on natural and human systems
2014/03/28: CJR: Polar Bears ‘R’ Us
The latest edition of a UN report makes a media-ready case for the imminent dangers of climate change
2014/03/28: RTCC: Crop benefits of higher CO2 may fall short – IPCC
2014/03/28: RTCC: Climate change will hike air pollution deaths says UN study
2014/03/28: CSW: Matt Ridley op-ed is a laundry list of IPCC misrepresentations
2014/03/28: CBC: Climate change report: The good and bad news for Canada
2014/03/27: SMH: Climate change: IPCC eyes new bio-energy fix – BECCS
2014/03/28: QuarkSoup: IPCC Backtracks on Extinctions
2014/03/27: RTCC: Arctic shipping lanes open for four months by 2050 – IPCC
2014/03/27: RTCC: Some 15% of Pacific islands wiped out by 1m sea level rise – IPCC
2014/03/27: SciAm:Obs: Big Climate Danger Could Arrive as Soon as 2036
2014/03/26: DerSpiegel: UN Backtracks: Will Global Warming Really Trigger Mass Extinctions?
In 2007, the IPCC predicted that rising global temperatures would kill off many species. But in its new report, part of which will be presented next Monday, the UN climate change body backtracks. There is a shortage of evidence, a draft version claims.
2014/03/26: DD: ‘The polar bear is us’: New U.N. report warns that the effects of global warming are already being felt
2014/03/26: RTCC: Long-term sea level rise will be much higher, but barely studied — IPCC
2014/03/26: RTCC: UN climate science report will highlight ‘limits to adaptation’
Focus on limits to adaptation within the new IPCC report could sharpen focus on loss and damage within UN talks Humans will struggle to adapt to dangerous levels of climate change indefinitely, a UN science report is expected to announce next week.
2014/03/25: KSJT: AP, etc: The Never Ending IPCC Story: Climate Change Real, Bad, Now. & It’s Worsening
2014/03/25: TheConversation: IPCC preview: deep trouble brewing in our oceans
2014/03/25: BBC: Climate report aims to blossom in Japan
2014/03/25: ClimateShifts: IPCC preview: deep trouble brewing in our oceans
2014/03/25: RTCC: Climate change experts start IPCC deliberations in Japan
Delegates from over 100 countries are in Yokohoma to discuss latest UN study on climate risk [WG2, which is due out on March 31]
2014/03/25: RTCC: Climate change could devastate Africa crop yields
2014/03/24: CCurrents: Scorcher Summers For Europe , Disrupted Food Supplies, Broken Growth If No Climate Action Taken
2014/03/24: ABC(Au): UN climate change report card: Scientists predict Australia will continue to get hotter
2014/03/23: CBC: Global warming means food, water shortages warns UN report — Extinctions of animals and plants predicted
2014/03/23: CSM: U.N. climate change report details ‘abrupt or drastic changes’ worldwide
2014/03/23: ABC(Au): Climate change to disrupt food supplies, brake growth says UN climate report draft

Another Earth Hour has rolled around:

The WMO released their Status of the Global Climate report this week:

2014/03/24: WMO: [link to 3.7 meg pdf] WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate
2014/03/24: WMO: WMO Annual Climate Statement Highlights Extreme Events
2014/03/24: WMO: Meteorological summer/winter sees many extremes
2014/03/25: DD: WMO: Global warming not stopped, will go on for centuries – “The laws of physics are non-negotiable”
2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): 13 of 14 warmest years on record occurred in 21st century – UN
Global warming trend continues with floods, droughts and extreme weather events around the world
2014/03/24: TP:JR: 2013 Weather Extremes Consistent With Climate Change, U.N. Report Finds
2014/03/24: TheConversation: Global meteorology report puts yet more heat on climate politics [WMO]
2014/03/24: RTCC: Weird weather: WMO highlights extreme events of 2013
ANALYSIS: 2013 was a year of ‘many extreme weather events’ according to the UN – all over the world The World Meteorological Organization released its ‘Status of the Global Climate’ today, an annual review of the climatic highlights in the past 12 months.
2014/03/24: RTCC: Centuries of warming locked into earth’s climate warns UN
World Meteorological Organization says countries must become more resilient to extreme weather Record temperatures, heavy monsoon rains and rising sea levels are all signs the climate is changing, says the UN’s World Meteorological Organization.

Something to ponder – our place in the world:

The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund needs help:

Is there a change in the wind? or is it my imagination?

2014/03/26: Guardian(UK): ‘Events, dear boy, events’ have put climate change back on the agenda
The decline of climate change on leaders’ agendas has been reversed – not by new analysis, but two years of extreme weather

How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

2014/03/28: FukuLeaks: German Grafenrheinfeld Nuclear Plant To Shut Down Early Over Financial Woes
2014/03/28: WNN: Nuclear tax robs seven months from German plant
The Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant will close seven months early, said EOn, claiming the government tax on nuclear fuel makes its final period of operation uneconomic.
2014/03/28: GEB: E.ON Announces Earlier Closure of Grafenrheinfeld Nuclear Power Plant
2014/03/25: CleanTechnica: 6 German Renewable Energy Charts
2014/03/25: GET: German energy strategy under threat from EU “paradigm shift”
2014/03/24: GET: E.ON threatens premature closure of nuclear plant
2014/03/24: RNE: Fossil fuel production falls in Germany, exports soar
As Germany chancellor Angela Merkel said last month, if Germany can succeed with its ambitious energy transition then other countries could too. “If we succeed, then she (the Energiewende) – and I’m convinced of it – will become another German export hit,” she said. “The world looks with a mixture of a lack of understanding and curiosity on whether and how the Energiewende (Germany’s move from nuclear to renewable energy) will succeed. Many, particularly in the fossil fuel industry, look on with horror, rather than curiosity. A successful transition in Germany will set off a domino effect which will be unstoppable. Which is why so many – from large international coal and oil companies, all the way down to conservative commentators and even Australia ministers such as environment minister Greg Hunt, do as much as they can to suggest the German experience is a disaster.

And on the Bottom Line:

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

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?

That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

2014/03/27: DeSmogBlog: Baffin Island Communities Unanimously Opposed to Offshore Oil Exploration
2014/03/23: TheCanadian: Arctic offshore drilling preparations concern communities
2014/03/23: CBC: Arctic offshore drilling closer to reality as projects enter regulatory review
No actual drilling is likely to happen for years, but major development decisions are being made now Growing industry interest in the offshore oil resources of Canada’s Arctic is forcing northerners from east to west to confront hard questions about development. No actual drilling is likely to happen for years. But major decisions are being taken now as projects enter the regulatory system. Governments, aboriginal groups and Arctic communities are considering issues such as how to plug possible blowouts, who benefits from development and whether some waters should remain closed.

While in Antarctica:

2014/03/28: PSinclair: Antarctic Ice Loss Accelerating
2014/03/26: AGU: New study shows major increase in West Antarctic glacial loss
Six massive glaciers in West Antarctica are moving faster than they did 40 years ago, causing more ice to discharge into the ocean and global sea level to rise, according to new research. The amount of ice draining collectively from those half-dozen glaciers increased by 77 percent from 1973 to 2013, scientists report this month…
2014/03/26: MGS: AABW in the news!

The food crisis is ongoing:

2014/03/30: Guardian(UK): Latin America: how climate change will wipe out coffee crops — and farmers
2014/03/30: Guardian(UK): Central America coffee workers’ stories [pix]
2014/03/28: BBC: Is Japan playing hunger games with climate change?
The impact of rising temperatures on the world’s food supplies is a key issue for climate experts meeting in Japan. But food security is not just about developing countries. As environment correspondent Matt McGrath reports, a changing climate is one of a number of issues pushing Japan towards a food crisis.
2014/03/28: Guardian(UK): How climate change will brew a bad-tasting, expensive cup of coffee
2014/03/27: FAIR: WaPo’s Twisted Take on Poor People Eating
2014/03/27: RTCC: Climate change could drive decline in Brazil’s coffee exports
2014/03/27: Eureka: Food insecurity a growing challenge in Canada’s northern and remote Aboriginal communities
2014/03/26: BBerg: Chinese Pigs Eating Soybeans Cut U.S. Supply to 1965 Low
In the 60 years that Ursa Farmers Cooperative has been loading Midwest soybeans onto boats along the Mississippi River, business has never been this good. Barge convoys are heading south along the world’s busiest inland waterway to New Orleans export depots at a record pace as demand surges from pig farmers in China, the largest pork-eating country. Soy stockpiles in the U.S., where farmers harvested the third-largest crop ever just six months ago, are the lowest relative to demand in at least five decades, fueling the second-biggest rally in prices to start the year since 2005.
2014/03/26: DD: California drought: How water crisis is worse for almonds…
2014/03/25: Grist: Climate change is going to turn the Earth into a planet of hungry kids
2014/03/25: Oxfam: World “woefully unprepared” for climate impacts on food
2014/03/25: RTCC: Ten reasons why food will be scarce in a warmer world
2014/03/24: LA Times: Wal-Mart’s dependence on food stamps, revealed
2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): Climate change could leave another 50 million people facing hunger by 2050
2014/03/24: UN: UN agency calls for concrete measures to end hunger in Africa by 2025
2014/03/24: SciShot: More Olives in a Warming World

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

2014/03/29: CCP: We are close to eating bait fish and jelly fish as big fish numbers plummet
2014/03/28: Grist: A high seas fishing ban scorecard: (Almost) everybody wins
2014/03/26: Guardian(UK): How California’s juvenile salmon are migrating to the sea – in trucks
Salmon in California wanting to get downstream to the ocean have one major problem: a drought has dried up their river. But a fleet of lorries is coming to their rescue
2014/03/25: DeSmogBlog: Massive Shellfish Die-Off in B.C. Heralds a Future We Can and Must Avoid
2014/03/24: EUO: EU bans fish imports from Belize, Cambodia, and Guinea
The blacklist, first proposed by the European Commission and then rubber stamped by the member states on Monday (24 March), is a first for the EU under its illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing regulation from 2010.
2014/03/23: DD: New report exposes nine of the dirtiest U.S. fisheries
“Hundreds of thousands of dolphins, whales, sharks, sea birds, sea turtles, and fish needlessly die each year as a result of indiscriminate fishing gear”

Food Prices are still problematic:

FAO: World Food Situation – Food Price Indices
2014/03/28: BBC: Wheat prices rise on Crimea and Ukraine worries
Fears of political instability in Crimea and Ukraine have helped push up wheat prices since February.
2014/03/26: BBerg: Wheat Climbs as U.S. Crop Conditions Deteriorate on Dry Weather
Wheat advanced for the second time in three days on concern that dry weather may hurt crops coming out of dormancy in the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter. The contract for May delivery increased as much as 0.5 percent to $7.1175 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. Futures were at $7.105 by 1:05 p.m. in Singapore, climbing 17 percent this year. Moisture shortages are reported to cover two-thirds of the Plains wheat belt, according to Commodity Weather Group.

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

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

A relatively quiet week in the hurricane wars. TC Gillian and TD04W faded away. There is an unreported cyclone between Madagascar and the mainland:

While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

2014/03/29: ABC(Au): Philippines receives a further $30 million in Australian aid for Typhoon Haiyan rebuild

This week in notable weather:
- 2014/03/28: BBerg: Ice on the Great Lakes (false color) [on Mar.18]
- 2014/03/27: CBC: Maritimes storm: travel limited, thousands without power — As much as 50 cm of snow dumped during spring blizzard
- 2014/03/27: al Jazeera: Winter storm pummels North America
  Northeastern USA and eastern Canada are hit by strong winds and heavy snow.
- 2014/03/27: NASA: Satellite Time-Lapse Movie Shows U.S. East Coast Snowy Winter
- 2014/03/27: Wunderground: Mighty 955 mb Nor’easter Pounds Canadian Maritime Provinces
- 2014/03/27: al Jazeera: [pix] Poland’s wintry blast — Around 40cm of snow blankets parts of Central Europe
- 2014/03/26: CBC: Maritime storm cripples East Coast with snow, wind
  Flights cancelled throughout the region due to whiteout conditions
- 2014/03/26: GLaden: Don’t forget Canada’s memorable storm
- 2014/03/24: Wunderground: Meteorological Bomb Brewing for Canada [Maritimes] on Wednesday
Got any forecasts?
- 2014/03/26: CBC: Cold weather isn’t going away, forecasters warn — Spring likely won’t begin in earnest until mid-April
- 2014/03/25: BBC: UK’s future climate to be all sorts
  British winters are likely to become milder and wetter like the last one but cold spells still need to be planned for, says the UK Met Office.
- 2014/03/25: Guardian(UK): Climate change will make UK weather too wet and too dry, says Met Office
This week in the New Normal — extreme weather:
- 2014/03/27: PSinclair: Extreme Weather Events: What are the Odds?
- 2014/03/25: RealClimate: The most common fallacy in discussing extreme weather events
- 2014/03/24: RTCC: Weird weather: WMO highlights extreme events of 2013
- 2014/03/23: Xinhuanet: Tibet records rising temperatures and extreme weather
Polar Vortex? Rossby Waves? Blocking Patterns? Arctic Oscillation?

What is the Arctic melt doing to our weather?
- 2014/03/26: PSinclair: Ridiculously Resilient Ridge Rides Rough, Hangs Tough
- 2014/03/25: SciAm:Obs: Nor’easter Bomb Hits East Coast Thanks to a Rex Block. Huh?
- 2014/03/19: Slate: Thanks to a “Rex Block,” Winter Is Staying Put in the East
As for GHGs:
- 2014/03/27: Guardian(UK): UK greenhouse gas emissions fall by 2% – Less coal and gas usage
- 2014/03/26: Grist: Kangaroo farts could help slow climate change
- 2014/03/23: CCP: Record early CO2 above 400 ppm at Mauna Loa, report Boulder scientists
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2014/03/30: MODIS: Dust from Gobi Desert over China [on Mar.17]
- 2014/03/25: MODIS: Dust storms off Baja California [on Mar.16]
What’s new in the Weather Machine?
- 2014/03/26: UCSUSA:B: The Ocean’s Cooling Effect: An Air Conditioner for the Planet
Regarding Climate Sensitivity:
- 2014/03/29: SimpleC: Climate sensitivity wrangles don’t change the big picture on emissions
Yes we have feedbacks:
- 2014/03/24: ATTPh: Energy budget estimates explicitly using feedbacks
And on the ENSO front:
- 2014/03/28: ATTPh: A possible “told you so” moment?
- 2014/03/27: KSJT: El NiÃ±o – All news is local – to the max.
- 2014/03/26: TP:JR: Is A Super El NiÃ±o Coming That Will Shatter Extreme Weather And Global Temperature Records?
- 2014/03/25: PSinclair: “Unusually Intense” El Nino On the Way?
- 2014/03/25: RScribbler: Monster El Nino Emerging From the Depths: Nose of Massive Kelvin Wave Breaks Surface in Eastern Pacific
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): Wet La Nina years mask sea level rise
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): US atmospheric scientists predict intense El Nino
  The sub surface temperature of the eastern Pacific Ocean is measuring an ‘astounding’ six degrees warmer than normal for this time of year. A team of US atmospheric scientists says that points to a major El Nino event forming to rival the record event nearly 20 years ago.
As for the temperature record:
- 2014/03/25: RNE: 2013 is 6th warmest year; climate change contributes
- 2014/03/24: CSM: 2013 was the fourth, sixth or seventh hottest year on record, say scientists
- 2014/03/24: NatureNB: WMO: “No standstill in global warming”
What’s new in proxies?
- 2014/03/25: SciShot: Famous Paintings Hold Clues to Past Climate
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2014/03/26: NASA: First Images Available from NASA-JAXA Global Rain and Snowfall Satellite
- 2014/03/26: IOTD: First Images from the Global Precipitation Mission [on Mar.10]
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2014/03/29: CBC:Q&Q: The Rain Allowed the Mongols to Leave the Plain
- 2014/03/27: SciAm:AA: Tiny, Ancient Crustacean Preserved in Fool’s Gold, Legs, Eggs and All
- 2014/03/27: MissouriU: Ancient African Cattle First Domesticated in Middle East, MU Study Reveals
  New genetic history of cattle allows for better breeding methods, reveals new aspects of human history
- 2014/03/26: NatureN: Prehistoric ‘weird shrimps’ traded claws for nets
  Cambrian fossil is earliest example of large swimming filter-feeder.
- 2014/03/26: SciShot: Jumbo Shrimp of the Ancient Seas
- 2014/03/25: SciNow: Did Inbreeding Doom the Mammoth?
- 2014/03/25: BasqueResearch: The causes and consequences of global climate warming that took place 56 million years ago are studied [PETM]
And in historical times:
- 2014/03/23: CCP: NYT: Lessons from the Little Ice Age
What’s new in Biodiversity?
- 2014/03/28: Guardian(UK): Predicting future biodiversity under climate change
- 2014/03/28: Asia Times: Turtles thrive thanks to Indian efforts
- 2014/03/26: TP:JR: Meet Dalmation Toadflax, A Nasty Invader And Climate Change Winner
- 2014/03/24: USGS: Post-Fire Stabilization Seedings Have Not Developed Into Sage-grouse Habitat
- 2014/03/24: BBC: Warmer springs boost long-tailed tit survival
  Warm spring weather boosts long-tailed tits’ chances of surviving the winter, scientists have said. The UK’s population of these little birds has more than doubled in the last forty years. A 19-year study by researchers in Sheffield links rising spring temperatures to their improved survival.
And on the extinction watch:
- 2014/03/29: DerSpiegel: Photo Gallery: Species Threatened with Extinction
- 2014/03/28: SciNow: Is the Dingo Special Enough to Save?
- 2014/03/28: ScienceInsider: Scientists Call on Spain to Ban Vulture-Killing Drug
- 2014/03/28: BBC: Number of birds of prey poisoned in Scotland doubles
- 2014/03/26: SciAm:EC: $10-Million Action Plan Aims to Save World’s Most Endangered Gorilla
- 2014/03/26: Grist: Startling image shows how much trouble lions are really in
- 2014/03/25: TreeHugger: This sad map shows where lions used to live (red) and where they remain today (blue)
- 2014/03/25: DD: Australia scientists resign ‘living dead’ species to extinction, call for triage debate
  “I’m afraid to tell everybody we’re in a terminal situation. We’re confronting a whole raft of species about to go over the extinction cliff.”
- 2014/03/24: Vox: Author of “The Sixth Extinction,” Elizabeth Kolbert, talks to Ezra Klein about the next mass extinction.
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2014/03/30: ABC(Au): Heatwaves hurt disadvantaged Australians the hardest
- 2014/03/29: CBC:Q&Q: Salamanders Shrink as the Climate Warms
- 2014/03/27: GLaden: Alarming Rates Of Climate Change Caused Alarming Change in Salamanders
- 2014/03/26: CSM: Climate change makes salamanders shrink, scientists say
- 2014/03/26: NatureN: Salamander shrinkage linked to climate change
  Hotter, drier weather causes the amphibians to burn energy faster, researchers suggest.
- 2014/03/26: Eureka: Study shows invasive species in waterways on rise due to climate change
- 2014/03/26: BBC: Salamanders shrink as mountain home heats up
  Salamanders living in the eastern US have shrunk in size in response to climate change, say researchers.
- 2014/03/26: Xinhuanet: Salamanders in North America getting smaller due to global warming: study
- 2014/03/25: SciNow: Warming World Shrinks Salamanders
- 2014/03/25: Clemson: Study: Salamanders shrinking due to climate change
  Wild salamanders living in some of North America’s best salamander habitat are getting smaller as their surroundings get warmer and drier, forcing them to burn more energy in a changing climate. That’s the key finding of a new study published today in journal Global Change Biology that examined museum specimens caught in the Appalachian Mountains from 1957 to 2007 and wild salamanders measured at the same sites in 2011-2012.
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): Environmental impact to worsen over time
  Even if current appetites for new things remained stable, the world is headed for more environmental destruction as resources become harder to reach.
- 2014/03/24: NYRB: Elegy for a Country’s Seasons
- 2014/03/23: DD: Mountain birds climb with increasing temperatures…
- 2014/03/23: TRN: NASA Climate Predictions Show Serious Threat To Humanity
And then there are the world’s forests:
- 2014/03/29: AllAfrica:ZimIndependent: Zimbabwe: Small-Scale Tobacco Farmers Fuel Massive Deforestation
  A drive through Mashonaland Central province — including Mudhindo village — will shock any remotely environmentally-conscious person as vast stretches of forests have been left barren, risking denudation due to the massive cutting down of trees by small-scale tobacco farmers who use firewood to cure their tobacco.
- 2014/03/24: DD: Scientists urge ban on roads in intact wilderness areas…
- 2014/03/24: UCSUSA: General Mills Commits to Deforestation-Free Palm Oil
Climate refugees are becoming an issue:
- 2014/03/24: EUO: Record numbers of asylum seekers [435,000] flock to EU
- 2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): Humanitarian crisis looms as refugees from South Sudan pour into Ethiopia
Aerosols affect the climate, but they also affect people’s health:
- 2014/03/30: CleanTechnica: Closure Of Coal-Burning Power Plant In Tongliang, China Led To Great Improvements In Children’s Health, Research Shows
- 2014/03/29: NBF: World Health Organization increased estimate of air pollution deaths to 7 million deaths per year in 2012 which is more than double prior estimates and shows it is the single largest environmental health risk
- 2014/03/28: NASA: Research Clarifies Health Costs of Air Pollution from Agriculture
- 2014/03/26: SciAm:GB: China-India Smog Rivalry a Sign of Global Menace
- 2014/03/26: Eureka: Coal plant closure in China led to improvements in children’s health
- 2014/03/26: ABC(Au): Air pollution killing seven million a year
- 2014/03/25: CBC: Air pollution kills 7 million people every year globally, WHO finds
- 2014/03/25: EurActiv: WHO: Air pollution behind one in eight deaths
- 2014/03/25: UN: Air pollution now linked to 1 in 8 deaths worldwide, UN health agency reports
- 2014/03/25: NatureNB: WHO doubles estimates of air pollution’s health toll
- 2014/03/25: RTCC: Air pollution causes ‘one in eight deaths’ says UN
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): Polluted air linked to 7 million deaths in 2012 – WHO
- 2014/03/25: al Jazeera: WHO: Pollution kills 7 million people a year
  World Health Organisation says air pollution now the cause of one in eight deaths, with indoor stoves the biggest risk.
Changes in natural cycles are showing up:
- 2014/03/28: Eureka: Research suggests autumn is ending later in the northern hemisphere
- 2014/03/28: CBC: Forest growth season getting longer in northern hemisphere, study says
On the tornado front:
- 2014/03/28: Eureka: NIST issues final Joplin tornado report, begins effort to improve standards and codes
- 2014/03/27: CSM: Tornadoes in California? At least four funnel clouds touch down in northern California
- 2014/03/27: CSM: Tornadoes in California damage homes, leave trail of debris
- 2014/03/26: NatGeo: “Fire Tornado” in Viral Video Explained
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2014/03/25: Eureka: Agricultural fires across Sierra Leone
- 2014/03/24: MODIS: Fires in southern India [on Mar.16]
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2014/03/28: TP:JR: The Pacific Ocean Is Turning Sour Much Faster Than Expected, Study Shows
Glaciers are melting:
- 2014/03/30: FaGP: Khatling Glacier Retreat, Uttarakhand, India
- 2014/03/24: FaGP: Ratangrian Glacier Retreat, Uttarakhand, India
Sea levels are rising:
- 2014/03/28: NYT: Borrowed Time on Disappearing Land — Facing Rising Seas, Bangladesh Confronts the Consequences of Climate Change
- 2014/03/28: DD: Facing rising seas, Bangladesh confronts the consequences of climate change…
- 2014/03/26: RTCC: Asia’s great cities face rising flooding risks in warming world
- 2014/03/25: IOTD: Parting the Sea to Save Venice
- 2014/03/24: RTCC: Slower sea level rise linked to El Nino and natural weather patterns
- 2014/03/23: Maribo: The full range of future sea level rise, and what it means
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2014/03/30: IOTD: A Tale of Two Mountains [on Mar.12]
- 2014/03/30: Grist: This Texas man is fighting the drought one tank of rainwater at a time
- 2014/03/29: DD: Graph of the Day: Precipitation anomalies over South America during the active monsoon season, September 2012 – May 2013
- 2014/03/29: DD: Seattle smashes record for all-time wettest March
- 2014/03/28: ABC(Au): Swift-water rescues in south-east Queensland after deluge causes flooding
- 2014/03/26: ABC(Au): Downpour in central Qld floods dozens of roads with more rain to come
- 2014/03/25: al Jazeera: Drought bites in South America
  From capybaras to coffee, a lack of water is having a severe impact across the continent.
- 2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): Desperately seeking solutions to worst drought in decades in Brazil
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): Man dies in stormwater drain during flash flooding in Sydney
- 2014/03/23: DD: New index reveals that recent UK floods could signal climate change
  “To experience four of the six most severe episodes in the last 30 years is disconcerting”
- 2014/03/23: TP:JR: Yes, Manmade Global Warming Is Worsening California’s Epic Drought
On the mitigation front, consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2014/03/28: Xinhuanet: Interview: “New Silk Road” tightens bonds between Germany, China: German company CEO
  Frankfurt — The “New Silk Road” railway linking China with Germany has tightened the economic and cultural bonds between the two countries, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Duisport Group said. Erich Staake, also president of the inland port company in the western German city of Duisburg, said in a recent interview with Xinhua ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Germany, which begins on Friday. The “New Silk Road,” also known as Yu New Europe railway, has become the most important trading route in the world, as it provides a direct link between China’s southwestern Chongqing Municipality, and Duisburg, where goods are distributed throughout Europe, he said. Countries along the road are emerging markets which are going to be more important, he added. The cargo route passes through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland.
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: Twice As Many Californians Walking, Biking, Or Using Public Transportation As In 2000, Survey Shows
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2014/03/27: CleanTechnica: Solar-Powered KB Home Models In Arizona
- 2014/03/23: PSinclair: Green Building Takes Off
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): Drilling project in far-west NSW showing hope for carbon capture opportunities
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2014/03/29: CBC: Give geoengineering a chance to fix climate change: David Keith
- 2014/03/28: Wunderground: Can Cloud Seeding Help Ease California’s Drought?
- 2014/03/25: EDF: Geoengineering the climate may be possible, but who decides?
- 2014/03/25: GOC: Capturing the Imagination: Prospects for Direct Air Capture as a Climate Measure (Case Study)
- 2014/03/24: DCGeoConsortium: Wil Burns- Carbon Dioxide Removal Approaches: Long-Term Implications And Requisite Societal Commitments
- 2014/03/19: OK: The case for and against [SRM] geoengineering
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2014/03/25: HESSD: Robust global sensitivity analysis of a river management model by L. J. M. Peeters et al.
- 2014/03/25: HESSD: Negative trade-off between changes in vegetation water use and infiltration recovery after reforesting degraded pasture land in the Nepalese Lesser Himalaya by C. P. Ghimire et al.
- 2014/03/24: HESSD: Socio-hydrologic modeling to understand and mediate the competition for water between agriculture development and environmental health: Murrumbidgee River Basin, Australia by T. H. M. van Emmerik et al.
- 2014/03/25: TC: A new method for deriving glacier centerlines applied to glaciers in Alaska and northwest Canada by C. Kienholz et al.
- 2014/03/24: TC: Evaluation of the snow regime in dynamic vegetation land surface models using field measurements by E. Kantzas et al.
- 2014/03/25: TCD: Elevation and elevation change of Greenland and Antarctica derived from CryoSat-2 by V. Helm et al.
- 2014/03/24: TCD: Combining damage and fracture mechanics to model calving by J. Krug et al.
- 2014/03/26: Nature: (ab$) A suspension-feeding anomalocarid from the Early Cambrian by Jakob Vinther et al.
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (abs) In a long-term experimental demography study, excluding ungulates reversed invader’s explosive population growth rate and restored natives by Susan Kalisz et al.
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (ab$) Evidence for nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation as a previously overlooked microbial methane sink in wetlands by Bao-lan Hu et al.
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (ab$) Rapid upslope shifts in New Guinean birds illustrate strong distributional responses of tropical montane species to global warming by Benjamin G. Freeman & Alexandra M. Class Freeman
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (ab$) Sparkling feather reflections of a bird-of-paradise explained by finite-difference time-domain modeling by Bodo D. Wilts et al.
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (ab$) Assessing the homogenization of urban land management with an application to US residential lawn care by Colin Polsky et al.
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (ab$) Plate tectonic controls on atmospheric CO2 levels since the Triassic by Douwe G. Van Der Meer et al.
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (ab$) Pluvials, droughts, the Mongol Empire, and modern Mongolia by Neil Pederson et al.
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (letter$) Birds and grapes on mountaintops by Jared Diamond
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Pearson and Nicholas, Stassen et al., and Zeebe et al.: Teasing out the missing piece of the PETM puzzle by James D. Wright & Morgan F. Schaller
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (letter$) Unsettled puzzle of the Marlboro clays by Peter Stassen et al.
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (letter$) Layering in the Paleocene/Eocene boundary of the Millville core is drilling disturbance by Paul N. Pearson & Christopher J. Nicholas
- 2014/03/25: PNAS: (letter$) Onset of carbon isotope excursion at the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum took millennia, not 13 years by Richard E. Zeebe et al.
- 2014/03/27: ESD: Terminology as a key uncertainty in net land use and land cover change carbon flux estimates by J. Pongratz et al.
- 2014/03/25: ESD: A lower and more constrained estimate of climate sensitivity using updated observations and detailed radiative forcing time series by R. B. Skeie et al.
- 2014/03/25: ESDD: Long-range memory in millennium-long ESM and AOGCM experiments by L. Ãstvand et al.
- 2014/03/27: ACP: Annual cycle of Antarctic baseline aerosol: controlled by photooxidation-limited aerosol formation by M. Fiebig et al.
- 2014/03/25: ACP: Chemical contribution to future tropical ozone change in the lower stratosphere by S. Meul et al.
- 2014/03/24: ACPD: The effects of energy paths and emission controls and standards on future trends in China’s emissions of primary air pollutants by Y. Zhao et al.
- 2014/03/26: WoL:GRL: (ab$) On Forced Temperature Changes, Internal Variability and the AMO by Michael E. Mann et al.
- 2014/03/26: WoL:GRL: (ab$) The influence of different El NiÃ±o types on global average temperature by Sandra Banholzer & Simon Donner
- 2014/03/05: WoL:GRL: (ab$) Sustained increase in ice discharge from the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, from 1973 to 2013 by J. Mouginot et al.
- 2014/03/26: Bioscience: Natural History’s Place in Science and Society by Joshua J. Tewksbury et al.
- 2014/03/28: BG: The role of phosphorus dynamics in tropical forests – a modeling study using CLM-CNP by X. Yang et al.
- 2014/03/27: BG: Carbon transfer, partitioning and residence time in the plant-soil system: a comparison of two 13CO2 labelling techniques by M. S. Studer et al.
- 2014/03/26: BG: Effects of elevated CO2 in the early life stages of summer flounder, Paralichthys dentatus, and potential consequences of ocean acidification by R. C. Chambers et al.
- 2014/03/25: BG: Response of benthic foraminifera to ocean acidification in their natural sediment environment: a long-term culturing experiment by K. Haynert et al.
- 2014/03/28: BGD: Chemical fate and settling of mineral dust in surface seawater after atmospheric deposition observed from dust seeding experiments in large mesocosms by K. Desboeufs et al.
- 2014/03/26: BGD: Improved estimates show large circumpolar stocks of permafrost carbon while quantifying substantial uncertainty ranges and identifying remaining data gaps by G. Hugelius et al.
- 2014/03/24: BGD: Short-term effects of thinning, clear-cutting and stump harvesting on methane exchange in a boreal forest by E. Sundqvist et al.
- 2014/03/24: BGD: Structural, physiognomic and aboveground biomass variation in savanna-forest transition zones on three continents. How different are co-occurring savanna and forest formations? by E. M. Veenendaal et al.
- 2014/03/24: BGD: Morphology of Emiliania huxleyi coccoliths on the North West European shelf – is there an influence of carbonate chemistry? by J. R. Young et al.
- 2014/03/28: CP: Regional climate model simulations for Europe at 6 and 0.2 k BP: sensitivity to changes in anthropogenic deforestation by G. Strandberg et al.
- 2014/03/27: CP: Climate variability over the last 92 ka in SW Balkans from analysis of sediments from Lake Prespa by K. Panagiotopoulos et al.
- 2014/03/26: CP: Magnetostratigraphy of sediments from Lake El’gygytgyn ICDP Site 5011-1: paleomagnetic age constraints for the longest paleoclimate record from the continental Arctic by E. M. Haltia & N. R. Nowaczyk
- 2014/03/25: CP: Modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis by R. F. Ivanovic et al.
- 2014/03/28: CPD: Variations in intermediate and deep ocean circulation in the subtropical northwestern Pacific from 26 ka to present based on a new calibration for Mg/Ca in benthic foraminifera by Y. Kubota et al.
- 2014/03/28: CPD: Two distinct decadal and centennial cyclicities forced marine upwelling intensity and precipitation during the late Early Miocene in Central Europe by G. Auer et al.
- 2014/03/27: CPD: Multi-proxy fingerprint of Heinrich event 4 in Greenland ice core records by M. Guillevic et al.
- 2014/03/26: CPD: Water pH and temperature in Lake Biwa from MBT’/CBT indices during the last 282 000 years by T. Ajioka et al.
- 2014/03/24: CPD: Natural periodicities and north-south hemispheres connection of fast temperature changes during the last glacial period: EPICA and NGRIP revisited by T. Alberti et al.
- 2014/03/20: WoL:GRL: (ab$) Predicting September Sea Ice Ensemble Skill of the Search Sea Ice Outlook 2008-2013 by Julienne Stroeve et al.
- 2014/03/19: Nature: (ab$) Methane fluxes show consistent temperature dependence across microbial to ecosystem scales by Gabriel Yvon-Durocher et al.
- 2014/03/28: ACP: Tropical deep convection and density current signature in surface pressure: comparison between WRF model simulations and infrasound measurements by L. Costantino & P. Heinrich
- 2014/03/28: HESSD: Soil erosion by snow gliding – a first quantification attempt in a sub-alpine area, Switzerland by K. Meusburger et al.
- 2014/03/28: HESSD: Observed groundwater temperature response to recent climate change by K. Menberg et al.
- 2014/03/28: OSD: Assessment of the ECCO2 reanalysis on the representation of Antarctic Bottom Water properties by M. Azaneu et al.
- 2014/03/27: TC: Near-surface permeability in a supraglacial drainage basin on the Llewellyn Glacier, Juneau Icefield, British Columbia by L. Karlstrom et al.
- 2014/03/27: TC: Modeling bulk density and snow water equivalent using daily snow depth observations by J. L. McCreight & E. E. Small
- 2014/03/26: TCD: A 1-D model study of Arctic sea-ice salinity by P. J. Griewank & D. Notz
- 2014/01/23: WoL:FE: (ab$) A genetics-based Universal Community Transfer Function for predicting the impacts of climate change on future communities by Dana H. Ikeda et al.
- 2014/03/25: PLoS Biology: Making De-Extinction Mundane? by Carrie Friese
- 2014/03/23: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) High predictability of the winter Euro-Atlantic climate from cryospheric variability by J. GarcÃa-Serrano & C. Frankignoul
- 2014/03/23: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Evidence for oxygenic photosynthesis half a billion years before the Great Oxidation Event by Noah J. Planavsky et al.
- 2014/03/23: Nature:CC: (ab$) Arctic ecosystem structure and functioning shaped by climate and herbivore body size by P. Legagneux et al.
- 2014/03/23: Nature:CC: (ab$) The rate of sea-level rise by Anny Cazenave et al.
- 2014/03/23: Nature:CC: (ab$) Vulnerability to the mortality effects of warm temperature in the districts of England and Wales by James E. Bennett et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2014/03/24: WMO: [link to 3.7 meg pdf] WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate
- 2014/03/27: EJF: [link to 3.5 meg pdf] The Gathering Storm: Climate Change, Security and Conflict
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2014/03/27: GLaden: New Paper: On Forced Temperature Changes, Internal Variability and the AMO
- 2014/03/26: SFU: Natural history dying of neglect
- 2014/03/26: UW: Decline of natural history troubling for science, society
- 2014/03/26: SciAm:IC: Post publication peer-review: Everything changes, and everything stays the same
- 2014/03/24: KSJT: Retraction Watch is kicking it up a notch
- 2014/03/23: ERabett: Who You Gonna Trust, Models or Data?
In the science organizations:
- 2014/03/27: SciAm:TCW: Are we entering a golden era of private science funding?
- 2014/03/25: NatureN: Chile puts plan for science ministry on hold
  Government rethinks former president’s bid to create first unified science department.
More DIY science:
- 2014/03/26: TheConversation: How your computer could reveal what’s driving record rain and heat in Australia and NZ
- 2014/03/26: RNE: DIY climate science: Use your laptop to measure weather risk
- 2014/03/25: Guardian(UK): 10,000 people to research link between humans and Australia’s record heat
- 2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): Citizen scientists test influence of climate change on UK winter deluge: results pour in
What’s new in models?
- 2014/03/28: WMO: TIGGE-LAM improves regional ensemble forecasts
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?
Regarding Levin:
Regarding Mann:
- 2014/03/29: DD: Climate change here and now: Interview with climate scientist Michael Mann…
Regarding Tol:
- 2014/03/29: CSW: Outlier scientist seeks spotlight as new IPCC report outlines climate risks
- 2014/03/28: Guardian(UK): Governments reject IPCC economist’s ‘meaningless’ climate costs estimate
  UK-based Richard Tol, who has criticised overall report, accused of underestimating costs of climate change in economics section
- 2014/03/27: CSM: Why one economist pulled out of new UN climate change report
- 2014/03/27: ERabett: The Ferret Pwnd
- 2014/03/27: ERabett: The Ferret Cornered
- 2014/03/27: ERabett: The Reverse Ferret – Richard Tol has been playing Richard Tol at the IPCC WGII meeting in Tokyo
- 2014/03/27: Guardian(UK): IPCC author, Richard Tol, brands upcoming climate report ‘alarmist’
- 2014/03/25: BBC: Dissent among scientists over key climate impacts report
  Senior scientists and government officials are meeting in Japan to agree a critical report on the impacts of global warming.
The Pielke fan clubbe, alas:
- 2014/03/29: ERabett: Stealth Issue Advocate Pielke
- 2014/03/28: QuarkSoup: The Latest Dust-up
- 2014/03/27: ITracker: Jar Jar Pielke
Meanwhile at the UN:
- 2014/03/27: RTCC: Ban Ki-moon urges end to climate change ‘silence’
  The dangers of global warming cannot be ignored, said Ban Ki-moon during a Greenland visit to assess how the Arctic is being affected by rising temperatures.
- 2014/03/26: UN: ‘Majestic’ Greenland provides UN chief first-hand look at impacts of climate change
- 2014/03/23: UN: On World Meteorological Day, UN rallies youth to take on climate change
And on the carbon trading front:
On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:
- 2014/03/27: RT: Historical Iranian nuclear deal to be shelved again?
- 2014/03/24: Belfer:IranMatters: Will US sanctions scuttle a nuclear deal with Iran?
South [& East] China Sea tension persists:
- 2014/03/30: BBC: China-Philippines navy spat captured on camera
  Journalists on board a Philippine ship have witnessed a Chinese coast guard vessel trying to block access to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. The Chinese ship radioed to demand the crew turn around, or “take full responsibility” for their actions. But the Philippine boat, ferrying food to troops stationed on the Second Thomas Shoal, managed to slip past. The shoal is one of many flashpoints in the area, where several countries have overlapping territorial claims.
- 2014/03/29: ABC(Au): Chinese president says Beijing will “strongly safeguard” South China Sea interests
  Chinese President Xi Jinping says his country will not act aggressively regarding territorial claims in the South China Sea but is determined to safeguard its interests there.
- 2014/03/27: Asia Times: New ties, new risks in the South China Sea
A significant development in the global competition for Rare Earths:
- 2014/03/26: ABC(Au): China loses trade dispute over rare earth exports
  China has lost a dispute at the World Trade Organisation over restrictions on its exports of rare earth metals, tungsten and molybdenum, the US Trade Representative’s office said. The complaint about the restrictions on the highly prized commodities was made by the United States, European Union and Japan two years ago.
- 2014/03/26: BBC: China’s caps on exports of rare earth elements break global trade rules, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled
Regarding the EU FQD: Fuel Quality Directive:
These ‘free trade’ treaties should be called the corporate control treaties:
- 2014/03/29: NakedCapitalism: Countries Rejecting Trade Deal Provisions that Let Investors Override National Regulation
- 2014/03/28: EurActiv: US companies fret over selling TTIP
- 2014/03/28: CCurrents: Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement Consultation: Smokescreen For A Corporate Agenda
- 2014/03/27: EUO: EU drills into corporate protection clause in US trade deal
  The European Commission launched a 90 day public consultation on Thursday (27 March) in a bid to address “misconceptions and misrepresentations” about plans to include controversial rules on investor protection into an EU-US free trade deal. The mechanism, known as investor state dispute settlement (ISDS), allows companies to take legal action against governments if their decisions risk undermining their investments.
- 2014/03/25: al Jazeera: Obama in Europe: A friendly visit?
  The trade treaty the US and the EU are negotiating will be detrimental to Europeans.
There are power stuggles in Ukraine but the confrontation with Russia is stabilizing:
- 2014/03/28: EurActiv: Barroso and Van Rompuy shun climate action, embrace Obama’s shale gas
- 2014/03/28: CSM: Obama meets with Saudi king. Could they counter Russia with oil?
- 2014/03/27: NorRe: It’s Madness
- 2014/03/27: Tyee: Ukraine Crisis Highlights Ugly Global Energy Truths — Enslaved by debt, it represents the worst of corrosive oil and gas politics
- 2014/03/27: Resilience: Export Stupidity
- 2014/03/27: Resilience: Ukraine Crisis Highlights Ugly Global Energy Truths
- 2014/03/26: GEB: RP: Energy Commissioner [Oettinger] Recommends Fracking Model Project in Germany in View of Crimean Crisis
- 2014/03/26: BBC: Ukraine’s interim government says it will raise gas prices for domestic consumers by 50% in an effort to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) aid package
- 2014/03/26: CSM: Ukraine crisis makes for jittery energy markets
- 2014/03/26: CSM: What if Europe stopped buying Russian gas tomorrow?
- 2014/03/26: EurActiv: Energy security towers over EU-US summit
- 2014/03/26: CleanTechnica: EUEA: Ukraine Will Continue Providing FiT To Solar Power Plants In Crimea
- 2014/03/26: CCD: Crimea and the annexation of language
- 2014/03/26: EurActiv: EU warms to shale gas in the wake of Crimea crisis
- 2014/03/25: OilChange: Europe Eyes American Shale Gas
- 2014/03/25: CSM: Obama warns of energy sanctions if Russia escalates Ukraine crisis
- 2014/03/25: CPunch: Europe Doesn’t Need America’s Fracked Gas
- 2014/03/25: BBC: Lithuania pleads for US gas exports to counter Russia [Ukraine]
- 2014/03/25: BBC: The UK is reviewing its nuclear co-operation agreement with Russian state firm Rosatom because of the Ukraine crisis
- 2014/03/25: BBerg: Russian Oil Seen Heading East Not West in Crimea Spat
- 2014/03/24: GEB: European Council Meeting: Focus on Ukraine – No Decision on Climate and Energy Policies for 2020 to 2030
- 2014/03/24: RT: UK to start directly buying Russian gas
Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, resources, religion, ideology … etc.:
- 2014/03/27: EJF: [link to 3.5 meg pdf] The Gathering Storm: Climate Change, Security and Conflict
- 2014/03/27: EJF: Climate change is an emerging concern on security agendas
- 2014/03/27: RTCC: Global warming threatens ‘security and economy’ say US, EU
- 2014/03/27: RTCC: Climate change is world’s ‘gravest security threat’ – [Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)] report
What are the activists up to?
- 2014/03/26: CCurrents: Women Ecowarriors by Vandana Shiva
The move to divest from fossil fuel investments is growing slowly:
- 2014/03/30: ABC(Au): Superannuation fund UniSuper plans to to add fossil fuels to list of unethical investments
- 2014/03/25: RealEconomics: Hahvahd and its role in climate change denial
Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:
- 2014/03/29: WSWS: The Detroit water cutoffs and the social counterrevolution in America
  In a city that lies alongside the largest surface freshwater system in the world, the authorities have begun a shutoff of water services, targeting 3,000 households every week for the next several months. If these plans are fully implemented, by the beginning of the summer tens of thousands of families will no longer have access to one of the most fundamental necessities of life. This is not only a stark expression of the irrationality of capitalism, it is a social crime, and those who are responsible are criminals.
- 2014/03/28: QuarkSoup: The Thing About Drought Is…
- 2014/03/28: QuarkSoup: John Fleck’s Writing About the Colorado River
- 2014/03/28: Asia Times: The kinship of rivers – An interview with Wang Ping
- 2014/03/27: USGS: Scientists Study Effects of Water Released Across U.S.-Mexico Border
- 2014/03/27: Eureka: Agroforestry systems can repair degraded watersheds
- 2014/03/26: CPunch: Water Apartheid in Palestine
- 2014/03/24: BBC: River pollution could be increased by wetter winters [flushing fertilizers]
- 2014/03/23: DD: This year’s World Water Day focuses on water and energy, but energy companies seem complacent about water risks
- 2014/03/23: QuarkSoup: About Today’s Flooding of the Colorado River Delta
John Fleck did a heartwarming and informative series of posts about the Colorado river pulse this week:
2014/03/29: JFleck: “the most beautiful sight”
2014/03/28: JFleck: a boy and his river
2014/03/28: JFleck: A river underground
2014/03/27: JFleck: Plumbing the pulse flow
2014/03/26: JFleck: Following the Rio Colorado west
2014/03/25: JFleck: A pickup, stuck in the Colorado River sand
2014/03/25: JFleck: hydrology at the end of a river
2014/03/24: JFleck: Memories of water
2014/03/23: JFleck: “La Cuenca is dead right now”

And on the groundwater front:
- 2014/03/26: ABC(Au): Australian groundwater knowledge to help the world
Regarding science education:
- 2014/03/27: Guardian(UK): Teachers swap climate change scare stories for fun and games
- 2014/03/26: RawStory: ACLU: Tennessee ‘religious freedom’ law would turn public schools into ‘Sunday schools’
Think you can innovate your way out of this?
- 2014/03/25: Resilience: 10 Open Hardware Projects to Save the Earth
While in the UK:
- 2014/03/30: Guardian(UK): Britain must take lead in global warming battle, says Ed Davey
  Lib Dem energy and climate change secretary speaks out on eve of publication of major UN report on environment
- 2014/03/29: BBC: UK Coal seeks financial help to keep mines open
  UK Coal is appealing for urgent financial help which it says is required to keep its mines open.
- 2014/03/27: BBC: Ed Miliband is to promise to protect small businesses from “unacceptable” treatment by energy firms
- 2014/03/26: BBC: The government and the Labour party have both claimed credit for a price freeze announced by UK energy supplier SSE
- 2014/03/26: BBC: Energy supplier SSE says it will freeze domestic gas and electricity prices at their current levels until 2016
- 2014/03/26: BBC: Severn Barrage: Chief quits to set up rival Â£25bn firm
  The chief executive of a firm wanting a Â£25bn barrage in the Severn Estuary has quit to set up a rival company looking to take the project forward. Mike Davies was appointed by Hafren Power in November but has quit, citing problems with the company. He is now setting up Severn Tidal Energy to pursue the barrage plans.
- 2014/03/25: Guardian(UK): Offshore windfarms vital amid tensions with Russia, says energy secretary
- 2014/03/25: BBC: Oil well safety warning for fracking
  Plans to expand shale gas “fracking” in the UK must learn from leaks and poor monitoring at existing onshore oil and gas sites, scientists say.
- 2014/03/25: BBC: Â£310m invested in UK wind turbines
  Manufacturing giant Siemens and the UK’s Associated British Ports are to invest a total of Â£310m in UK wind turbine factories, creating 1,000 jobs.
- 2014/03/25: BBC: Siemens confirm Green Port Hull wind turbine factory to be built
- 2014/03/23: BBC: Energy firms need investigating, say consumers and firms
  The consumer group Which? and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) are asking regulators to investigate the “broken” energy market.
- 2014/03/23: Guardian(UK): South-east of England more vulnerable to heatwave deaths, research reveals
And in Europe:
- 2014/03/28: EurActiv: New nuclear – now or never
- 2014/03/28: EUO: Brussels approves French state aid for wind energy
- 2014/03/28: RTCC: Wind energy could boost Ireland’s economy by E500m a year – report
- 2014/03/27: EurActiv: Game on for 30% binding resource efficiency target by 2030
- 2014/03/26: ScienceInsider: Organic Farming Overhaul in Europe May Boost Research
- 2014/03/24: RTCC: Netherlands to stop funding overseas coal power plants
  The Netherlands will no longer provide money to new coal projects overseas, announced the prime minister today, joining the US in a bid to stop the growth of coal.
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2014/03/28: JWright: Senate inquiry bogged down in party lines
  A Senate inquiry into the Australian Government’s proposed climate Direct Action Plan reported on Wednesday.
- 2014/03/30: ABC(Au): Heatwaves hurt disadvantaged Australians the hardest
  Heatwaves hit the most disadvantaged Australians the hardest. And with hot-spells expected to increase with climate change, there are calls to act early to save lives.
- 2014/03/29: ABC(Au): Extensive rain has not broken Queensland drought
- 2014/03/28: RNE: WA Senate re-run may give reprieve to renewables
- 2014/03/28: ABC(Au): Monash University correspondence reveals secretive attitude over fossil fuel investments
- 2014/03/28: ABC(Au): Emotional reaction to pictorial display of life after Tasmania’s 1967 bushfires
- 2014/03/28: JQuiggin: Climate denial and the decline of the IPA
- 2014/03/26: Guardian(UK): Bill Shorten says he fears cuts will leave Australians ‘stranded by change’
  Opposition leader sets out pre-budget ‘tests’ for the Coalition in speech to the National Press Club
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): Speaker Bronwyn Bishop targeted in no-confidence vote after Labor’s Mark Dreyfus kicked out of Parliament
  The Federal Opposition has accused Bronwyn Bishop of “serious partiality” in her role as Speaker of the House of Representatives and sought to move a motion of no confidence in the Speaker for the first time since 1949.
- 2014/03/27: RNE: Time to end “age of entitlement” for energy incumbents
- 2014/03/27: RNE: Australian PV researchers persevere in difficult environment
- 2014/03/27: RNE: Victoria cans energy efficiency loans scheme
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): Back tracking on carbon pricing will damage Australia
  Nicholas Stern who headed the Review on the Economics of Climate Change, published in 2006, discusses the Australian government’s intention to put an end to the carbon pricing and says it will damage not only Australia but also the rest of the world.
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): Monash declines to reveal investments
  Victoria’s Monash university says it’s committed to reducing its carbon emissions however it has declined to participate in a survey that would reveal how much money it makes from fossil fuel investments.
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): Pyrolysis waste plant considered for Moree
  The General Manager of Moree Plains Shire Council says Council has been approached to trial a new domestic waste processing method. David Aber says Council has received several offers to run a pyrolysis plant. Pyrolysis is a process that can turn municipal waste into gas, oil, and biochar, using a burning technique. Mr Aber says the process will reduce the waste going to landfill to just five per cent of current levels.
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): SA’s new agriculture minister questions GM crops
  South Australia’s new agriculture minister has a strong stance on genetically modified crops. Member for Mawson Leon Bignell has taken on the agriculture, food, forestry and fisheries portfolio in addition to tourism and sport.
- 2014/03/27: TheConversation: Senate committee draws battle lines ahead of carbon price fight
- 2014/03/26: ABC(Au): Wallarah 2 claims Land Council cash grab is ‘ludicrous’
  The proponent of a large coal mine on the New South Wales Central Coast has accused the Darkinjung Aboriginal Land Council of attempting to extort hundreds of millions of dollars in a land access deal.
- 2014/03/26: RNE: Pollie Watch: More hot air from Sen Madigan
- 2014/03/26: RNE: Australia in retreat and denial on climate adaptation
- 2014/03/26: RNE: Are Australian solar households getting ripped off?
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): ‘Lessons’ to be learnt from Henbury carbon farming failure: arid lands centre
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): Former Wallarah colliery coal fire to be extinguished
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): Labor takes veiled swipe at Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, says Parliament run as ‘protection racket’ for Tony Abbott
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): Legal challenge to Abbot Point dredging project
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): Cows win in beef over carbon farm venture at Henbury Station
  A bid to create a massive carbon farm in Central Australia is over, with the announcement it will be sold as a pastoral lease.
  
  […]
  
  In a bid to sell the property, the liquidator has announced stock will be allowed to return to the land.
- 2014/03/24: RNE: Qld regions to get just 6.3c/kWh for solar exports [FIT]
- 2014/03/24: RNE: Labor’s victory in SA offers hope for a little energy sanity
- 2014/03/23: TheConversation: Should Australia’s biodiversity be written into the Constitution?
Now we get to watch the suppository of wisdom destroy what little Australia has done to fight climate change:
- 2014/03/29: ABC(Au): Operation Sovereign Borders: Prime Minister Tony Abbott marks 100 days without an asylum seeker boat arrival
- 2014/03/29: ABC(Au): Warren Mundine maintains criticism of Coalition’s proposed changes to Racial Discrimination Act
- 2014/03/28: Guardian(UK): Race law proposal ‘modified and improved’ by cabinet, says Tony Abbott
- 2014/03/28: WSWS: Australian government instigates moves to quash PNG judge’s refugee inquiry
- 2014/03/28: ABC(Au): Joe Hockey looks to convince states to sell public assets to invest profits in infrastructure
- 2014/03/28: ABC(Au): Australian barrister Jay Williams thrown out of Manus Island despite court order
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au):TDU: This is free speech on steroids
  Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben would never have breached federal racial vilification law under the Federal Government’s proposed changes – that’s how weak they are, writes Simon Rice.
- 2014/03/27: Guardian(UK): Why I prayed for asylum seekers in Scott Morrison’s office
  The cruelty of Australia’s policies towards refugees drove me and eight friends to engage in civil disobedience to arouse the conscience of the nation
- 2014/03/27: Guardian(UK): Repealing the race hate laws isn’t ‘freedom’ to Indigenous people
  Now Brandis has said people have a ‘right’ to be bigots, expect fearful and beleaguered minorities to resist this ongoing attack on their identity
- 2014/03/27: Guardian(UK): ‘Flawed’ Direct Action climate plan should go, says Senate committee
  Increased cuts in emissions and floating carbon price recommended to replace Coalition scheme
- 2014/03/27: RNE: Direct Action remains a slogan, not a policy
- 2014/03/27: UKISS: Tony Abbott’s “Direct (in)Action” plan flawed.
- 2014/03/26: WSWS: Australian government minister steps aside: A revealing episode
- 2014/03/26: JQuiggin: Send in the clowns
- 2014/03/26: ABC(Au): Racial Discrimination Act amendment: Warren Mundine warns against changes, labels George Brandis’s bigotry comment ‘bizarre’
- 2014/03/25: Guardian(UK): If Australia wants to stop the boats, it must stand against abuses in Sri Lanka
  The Abbott government is obsessed with preventing refugees reaching its shores. Instead of cosying up to Sri Lanka, it should help stop the human rights violations which make people leave
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): Drought relief payments start rolling out
- 2014/03/25: RNE: Australia’s big fat solar policy failure exposed
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): George Brandis announces planned changes to Racial Discrimination Act
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): Asylum seeker burns allegations still ‘baseless’, matter is closed: Morrison
- 2014/03/24: NuclearIdea: Manus Island Human Rights lock out
- 2014/03/24: JQuiggin: Bolt and the right to be a bigot
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): George Brandis defends ‘right to be a bigot’ amid Government plan to amend Racial Discrimination Act
  Attorney-General George Brandis has defended the Government’s plan to amend a key part of the nation’s racial discrimination laws, saying people have “a right to be bigots”. The Abbott Government has promised to amend the Racial Discrimination Act by repealing section 18C, which makes it unlawful for someone to publicly “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” a person or a group of people.
- 2014/03/23: SMH: Abbott and O’Neill agree: No human rights inquiry for Manus Island
- 2014/03/23: Guardian(UK): Manus Island: barrister visits asylum seekers but inquiry under threat
  Papua New Guinea judge sets up snap inquiry after government froze his original human rights investigation
The fight over coal seam gas continues:
- 2014/03/29: ABC(Au): [Northern Territory] Fracking inquiry may bypass need for individual environmental assessments
- 2014/03/28: ABC(Au): Santos and AGL sign land access deal with farmers
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): Concerns over coal seam gas impacting groundwater
  Coal Seam Gas is developing at a gallop, while groundwater scientists are still at the starter’s gate. That was the view of scientists and engineers at a CSG forum at NSW Parliament House this week. A panel of speakers outlined a raft of concerns about the impact on groundwater, and the lack of thorough monitoring.
- 2014/03/26: ABC(Au): Six-month freeze on CSG exploration licences in New South Wales
- 2014/03/26: ABC(Au): Legal advice about CSG contamination of food not disclosed
  To date, there has been no contamination of meat by the coal seam gas sector. But legal experts warn it’s only a matter of time before such an issue comes to court. Just who is liable for damages, if a consumer falls ill and traces it back to petroleum exploration, is not clear. The cattle industry attempted to find out last year, but the findings are not allowed to be released due to professional legal privilege.
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): CSG forum at NSW Parliament House
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): US expert warning on gas mining
  A US professor from Cornell University, well known for his expertise on fracking, is calling on Australia to abandon coal seam and shale gas production and focus on alternative energy. Dr Anthony Ingraffea is a professor of engineering at Cornell and one of TIME Magazines “People Who Mattered” (2011). He says methane emissions from gas production are ‘a hell of a lot more than we thought’ and the risk of water contamination is too great.
- 2014/03/24: TheConversation: Coal seam gas water leaks could be a problem for decades
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): Battle for public opinion on CSG
After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are far from finished:
- 2014/03/30: ABC(Au): Temporary water supply found for Winnaleah after the detection of dangerous lead levels in bore
- 2014/03/29: ABC(Au): North Queensland irrigation plan: Indigenous elders claim lack of consultation in Gilbert River scheme
- 2014/03/29: ABC(Au): Worries over massive irrigation projects in Gilbert River region
- 2014/03/28: ABC(Au): Government to take another look at northern dams
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): $2b private proposal to build one of Australia’s biggest irrigation schemes in northern Queensland
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): Division over Qld irrigation scheme proposal
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): Fed Ag Minister [Joyce] backs irrigation scheme
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): North Queensland irrigation scheme sets off alarm bells for some farmers and environmentalists
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): Fishing concerns over water use
  The Australian prawn fishing industry says the country’s biggest ever irrigation project development could wipe out the whole banana prawn fishery in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
- 2014/03/27: ABC(Au): North Queensland irrigation plan could ‘destroy’ prawn fisheries in Gulf of Carpentaria, producers warn
- 2014/03/25: ABC(Au): Calls for Water Minister Peter Walsh to explain water consultancy contracts
  The Victorian Opposition is again calling on the Water Minister to reveal what he knew about the awarding of millions of dollars of consultancy contracts for the government’s new water agency. The Age newspaper is reporting the ombudsman is investigating allegations that the Office of Living Victoria failed to advertise the contracts before awarding them to former National Party advisers.
The Federal and now the State Liberals are bent on trashing the hard won Tasmanian forest deal:
- 2014/03/26: TheConversation: Ripping up the forestry deal won’t guarantee Tasmanian timber boom
- 2014/03/26: ABC(Au): Fact Check – Tony Abbott’s Tasmanian wilderness claim doesn’t check out
While in China:
- 2014/03/27: TP:JR: Smog Insurance Sales In China Cut Off After A Week
- 2014/03/26: TP:JR: China Admits Its Cities Are Failing Pollution Standards As Beijing Chokes On Smog Again
- 2014/03/26: IndiaTimes: Flood of dead pigs in China reservoir: Report
- 2014/03/24: RTCC: Growth in China’s carbon emissions has halved
And elsewhere in Asia:
In the Middle East:
- 2014/03/26: DeSmogBlog: Admiral Dennis Blair: “We Sent Troops to Middle East…Because of Oil-Based Importance of Region”
And in Russia:
And South America (and the Caribbean):
- 2014/03/27: UDW: COP Out? Peru Pulling the Plug on Environmental Oversight in View of COP 20
- 2014/03/27: BBC: El Salvador opposition admits presidential vote defeat
  The main opposition party in El Salvador has said it accepts defeat in the presidential election held on 9 March, after losing several appeals for a recount.
- 2014/03/26: WMO: USAID Investment to Improve Regional Resilience to Climate Change in the Caribbean
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:
- 2014/03/28: CBC: Climate change report: The good and bad news for Canada
- 2014/03/28: DeSmogBlog: Provinces Take Action on Carbon Emissions Reductions Where Federal Government Is Failing, Says Report
- 2014/03/26: TheCanadian: Aboriginal rights threaten Canada’s resource development agenda
- 2014/03/26: DeSmogBlog: Margaret Atwood: Canada’s War on Science “A Shoddy Treatment of our Tax Dollars”
Resonances of the Lac MÃ©gantic tragedy linger:
The Grain Backlog is still a significant stressor:
- 2014/03/28: CBC: CP Rail boss Hunter Harrison blasts grain backlog legislation — Railroad executive says it’s ‘grossly unfair’ to blame railways for transportation bottleneck
- 2014/03/27: CBC: Grain backlog legislation misses the mark, Sask. says
- 2014/03/26: CBC: Ottawa tables legislation to clear grain transportation backlog
  Legislation could potentially allow more service by more rail companies
Meanwhile in BC:
- 2014/03/29: DD: RCMP descend on native community on central coast of British Columbia in herring fishery conflict
- 2014/03/28: Rabble:CL: It is now legal to drill oil and build pipelines in B.C.’s provincial parks
- 2014/03/28: DeSmogBlog: New Campaign Finance Rules For B.C. Local Elections Leave “Elephant In The Room”
- 2014/03/27: Tyee: BC Loosens Restrictions on Swaths of Protected Farmland — Gov’t to allow ‘flexibility’ on how 90 per cent of Agricultural Land Reserve is used
- 2014/03/26: TheCanadian: Bill 4 opens BC parks to industry
- 2014/03/26: TheCanadian: Taseko appeals Prosperity Mine rejection…again
- 2014/03/25: TheCanadian: Economist: BC’s private waste, recycling plan is garbage
- 2014/03/25: DeSmogBlog: Massive Shellfish Die-Off in B.C. Heralds a Future We Can and Must Avoid
- 2014/03/25: DeSmogBlog: Bill 4 Passes: B.C. Parks Now Officially Open…To Pipelines and Drilling
- 2014/03/24: TheCanadian: Canfor, West Fraser overcut a million cubic meters of BC timber
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2014/03/28: Resilience: On Ravaged Tar Sands Lands, Big Challenges for Reclamation
- 2014/03/27: CensoredNews: Cheyenne River Sioux Halt Third Megaload
- 2014/03/24: NNW: Oilsands community not a cancer hotspot: study
- 2014/03/24: CBC: Higher cancer rates not found in oilsands community, study shows
  A study by the Alberta government says an aboriginal community downstream from the oilsands doesn’t have higher overall cancer rates.
- 2014/03/23: Creekside: Things that go better with Koch
Also in Alberta:
- 2014/03/25: TheCanadian: Oil sands companies to help develop elementary school curriculum
- 2014/03/23: CBC: Dave Hancock sworn in as interim Alberta premier
  Long-serving minister takes reins of troubled Progressive Conservative party
In Manitoba, the question of shipping oil via Churchill lingers troublingly.

[Note the decision is federal, not provincial.]:
- 2014/03/28: Rabble:ER: Grain shipping is for the bears: Oil by rail to Churchill not worth the risk
In Ontario:
- 2014/03/28: CBC: Enbridge’s $400 per year gas hike approved by regulator — Price shock follows coldest winter in 25 years
In the North:
- 2014/03/27: DeSmogBlog: Baffin Island Communities Unanimously Opposed to Offshore Oil Exploration
- 2014/03/27: Eureka: Food insecurity a growing challenge in Canada’s northern and remote Aboriginal communities
- 2014/03/23: TheCanadian: Arctic offshore drilling preparations concern communities
- 2014/03/23: CBC: Arctic offshore drilling closer to reality as projects enter regulatory review
  No actual drilling is likely to happen for years, but major development decisions are being made now Growing industry interest in the offshore oil resources of Canada’s Arctic is forcing northerners from east to west to confront hard questions about development. No actual drilling is likely to happen for years. But major decisions are being taken now as projects enter the regulatory system. Governments, aboriginal groups and Arctic communities are considering issues such as how to plug possible blowouts, who benefits from development and whether some waters should remain closed.
And on the American political front:
- 2014/03/28: CCP: FBI Investigates FEMA Flood Map Changes After NBC News Report
- 2014/03/28: CBC: South Portland moves to block Alberta bitumen from reaching its port
- 2014/03/27: Eureka: US clean-air efforts stay on target
  Rice University analysis of state efforts show dramatic gains in reducing airborne particulate matter
- 2014/03/27: Grist: Toto, our wind turbines are safe for another year!
- 2014/03/27: CleanTechnica: The Solar Right & The Arizona Test Case
- 2014/03/27: TP:JR: 3 Former Louisiana Governors Agree: Lawsuit Against 97 Oil And Gas Companies Should Proceed
- 2014/03/27: WSWS: One in three people in the US live “hand-to-mouth”
  One in three people in the United States live paycheck to paycheck, without any significant cash or savings reserves, according to a paper published last week by the Brookings Institution. While 16 percent of the population — 49.7 million individuals — is officially classified as poor, the number of people living “hand to mouth” is twice as large.
- 2014/03/26: UCSUSA:B: Kansas House of Representatives Says “no” to Attack on Renewable Electricity Standard
- 2014/03/26: TP:JR: Kansas House Rejects Koch-Backed Push To Kill Clean Energy Law
- 2014/03/26: ICN: Why Did ICF Int’l Withdraw From Tar Sands Pipeline Contract with the State Department?
  ICF International said the decision to withraw from the Alberta Clipper review was ‘strictly a business decision.’
- 2014/03/25: TP:JR: North Carolina Voters Want Action On Coal Ash As EPA Asks For More Time On Regulations
- 2014/03/24: LA Times: Wal-Mart’s dependence on food stamps, revealed
- 2014/03/23: Salon: Harvard’s destroying our planet: America’s grand, institutional failure to stop climate change
  The climate crisis demands bold action from our leading institutions. Too bad they’re all falling down on the job
Leaks and spills

Jeez! It’s getting hard to keep all the spills and leaks straight. You need a map. Let’s see…:
Earlier in Arkansas, Exxon, spilled dilbit into the suburb of Mayflower:
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics. See also:
- 2014/03/28: DD: Study blames BP oil spill for heart defects in fish…
- 2014/03/24: NOAANews: Crude oil causes developmental abnormalities in large marine fish
  Study shows Deepwater Horizon oil disrupts heart development in tunas
In Alaska, the Exxon Valdez is an oldie but a baddie:
- 2014/03/25: TreeHugger: Wildlife rescuers remember the Exxon Valdez spill 25 years later
- 2014/03/24: TP:JR: Photos: 25 Years Later, A Heartbreaking Look Back At Exxon’s Alaska Oil Spill
- 2014/03/24: DeSmogBlog: Exxon Valdez Anniversary Offers Lessons for Protecting B.C.’s Wild Salmon
- 2014/03/24: TheCanadian: Enbridge, Kinder Morgan opponents mark Exxon Valdez anniversary
- 2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): Exxon Valdez: what lessons have we learned from the 1989 oil spill disaster?
- 2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): Exxon Valdez oil spill – in pictures
- 2014/03/24: Wonkette: Happy Exxon Valdez 25th Anniversary Day! What Fish Will You Murder To Celebrate?
- 2014/03/24: Grist: 25 years after Exxon Valdez, oil spills ain’t what they used to be
- 2014/03/24: OilChange: Exxon Valdez: 25 Years on, the “Dead Zone” Remains
- 2014/03/23: TruthDig: 25 Years After Exxon Valdez, BP Was the Hidden Culprit
Sunoco Logistics has a big oil spill in an Ohio nature preserve:
After a collision, a barge leaked oil in the Houston Ship Channel:
- 2014/03/27: Grist: Here’s a shorebird’s-eye view of the Galveston oil spill
- 2014/03/28: TP:JR: Texas Oil Spill Is Killing Birds, Threatening Fishing Industry
- 2014/03/26: WSWS: As BP receives new contracts for Gulf Coast, Oil spill threatens Houston-area wildlife
- 2014/03/25: TP:JR: Ship Traffic Reopens For The Oil Industry Three Days After Texas’ 170,000 Gallon Oil Spill
- 2014/03/25: BBerg: Booming U.S. NGL Exports Idled With Houston Channel Shut
- 2014/03/24: CSM: Galveston oil spill: Does oil boom mean more spills?
- 2014/03/24: CBC: Houston oil spill closes major shipping channel
- 2014/03/24: TheCanadian: Crews work to clean up Texas oil spill
- 2014/03/24: TRP: Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Force an Oil Exec to Eat a Sweet Crude-Coated Seagull
  Texas sure has a literal way of celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound. Yep, that’s a barge partially sunk there and it leaked over 160,000 gallons of marine fuel oil into the Houston Ship Channel at Galveston Bay.
- 2014/03/24: DeSmogBlog: Imperiled Migratory Birds in Path of Galveston Oil Spill on Anniversary of Exxon Valdez Disaster
- 2014/03/24: RT: Oil spill clean-up closes off vital Texas channel for second day
  A massive oil spill clean-up operation shut down the Houston Ship Channel for the second day on Sunday, blocking dozens of ships. An oil barge with a 900,000-gallon tank collided with a ship on Saturday and spilled up to 168,000 gallons.
- 2014/03/23: CBC: Barge leaks oil after collision in Houston Ship Channel — Coast Guard reports ‘significant’ discharge from 1 tank
- 2014/03/23: TP:JR: Texas Barge Collision Spills Up To 168,000 Gallons Of ‘Sticky, Gooey, Thick, Tarry’ Oil
- 2014/03/23: CCP: Over 160,000 gallons of thick, guey, marine fuel oil spilled in Galveston Bay
Hundreds Of Fracking Wells In Pennsylvania Have Been Reported For Air And Water Violations :
- 2014/03/25: TP:JR: Hundreds Of Fracking Wells In Pennsylvania Have Been Reported For Air And Water Violations
Also fracking spills in Ohio:
- 2014/03/25: DeSmogBlog: Former Ohio Excavator Pleads Guilty to Dumping Contaminated Fracking Water
Another BP spill. This time from a refinery into Lake Michigan:
- 2014/03/28: CCP: Steve Horn: BP Lake Michigan Oil Spill: Did Tar Sands Spill into the Great Lake?
- 2014/03/28: FDL: BP Admits To Spilling Even More Oil In Lake Michigan
- 2014/03/28: DeSmogBlog: BP Lake Michigan Oil Spill: Did Tar Sands Spill into the Great Lake?
- 2014/03/27: DeSmogBlog: BP Doubles Initial Size Estimate of Lake Michigan Oil Spill
- 2014/03/27: TP:JR: Lawmakers Call For Full Accountability From BP On Lake Michigan Oil Spill
- 2014/03/26: CBC: BP oil refinery spill in Lake Michigan contained
  Whiting, Ind., oil refinery recently upgraded to take [dilbit] Alberta oilsands crude
- 2014/03/26: CSM: Lake Michigan spill at BP refinery affected half-mile of lake
- 2014/03/26: Grist: BP’s newly upgraded refinery just spilled oil into Chicago’s water source
- 2014/03/26: BBC: BP refinery leaks oil into Lake Michigan near Chicago
- 2014/03/25: TP:JR: BP Refinery Leaks Oil Into Lake Michigan
- 2014/03/25: TheCanadian: BP spills oil into Lake Michigan
- 2014/03/25: Guardian(UK): EPA: Oil spill affected half-mile of Lake Michigan
  Crews for oil giant BP are working to clean up an undetermined amount of crude oil that spilled into Lake Michigan and affected a half-mile-long section of northwestern Indiana shoreline. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the spill reported Monday afternoon at BP’s Whiting, Ind., refinery appears to have been contained.
A spill at the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah:
The GOP War on Women continues. See also:
- 2014/03/29: Wonkette: Bristol Palin Pretty Sure Pro-Choice People Are Murdering Pro-Life People, Or Something
- 2014/03/28 ACLU: Governor Tomblin Vetoes West Virginia Abortion Ban
- 2014/03/27: DemNow: Targeted by Firebombing, Legislation, and Now Vandalism, Montana Abortion Provider Shutters Clinic
- 2014/03/25: CBC: U.S. Supreme Court tackles health law birth control coverage — Hobby Lobby and other companies fighting government at top court
- 2014/03/25: CNN: In 2014, why are we still arguing about birth control?
  Supreme Court will hear arguments about Affordable Care Act provision – Jeanne A. Conry and Nancy L. Stanwood wonder why contraception is still controversial – They argue that allowing employers’ values to trump science is bad policy, bad medicine
- 2014/03/25: Guardian(UK): Ruling: Kansas can strip Planned Parenthood funds
  A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that Kansas can strip two Planned Parenthood clinics of federal family planning money while the organization moves forward with its legal challenge of a state law it says is retaliation for its advocacy of abortion rights.
- 2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): Behind the legal challenge to Obamacare’s contraception mandate
- 2014/03/24: Wonkette: Kansas Legislature Simply Cannot Stop Being Awful, Special Abortion Edition
- 2014/03/24: Wonkette: Alaskan State Sen. Pete Kelly Has Had It With These Irresponsible People Using Birth Control
Nate Silver originally drew attention because he was praeternaturally correct; his latest venture is less so:
- 2014/03/28: KSJT: Nate Silver’s ‘data journalism’ takes more hits
- 2014/03/28: PSinclair: Nate Silver Interview Completes Epic Fail Week for Climate Confuser Pielke
- 2014/03/28: CCP: FiveThirtyEight Apologizes On Behalf Of Controversial Climate Science Writer
- 2014/03/28: QuarkSoup: FiveThirtyEight Apologizes On Behalf Of Controversial Climate Science Writer
- 2014/03/27: CCP: Statistics and Climate Science: Roger Pielke Missed the Mark
- 2014/03/27: PSinclair: Cherry Picking Mars “Data Driven” Journalism [silver]
- 2014/03/26: NYT:PK: Data as Slogan, Data as Substance
- 2014/03/26: ERabett:BSD: Might help more if the link supports your assertion
- 2014/03/25: Guardian(UK): FiveThirtyEight undermines its brand by misrepresenting climate research
- 2014/03/24: DD: By hiring a climate disinformer, Nate Silver undermines his entire premise of data-driven journalism
- 2014/03/23: NYT:PK: Tarnished Silver
The Keeling Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Project is still seeking funding:
- The Keeling Curve
- 2014/03/24: Grist: World famous climate project forced to scrounge for funding
Late comment on the AAAS What We Know report:
- 2014/03/27: CJR: The banality of ‘What We Know’ about climate change
  Can a “boring” AAAS report change the global warming conversation?
- 2014/03/24: ERW: Climate change is putting world at risk of irreversible changes, scientists warn
- 2014/03/24: QuakeRattled: What we know
Looking ahead to the 2014 & 2016 elections:
- 2014/03/25: TP:JR: Gov. Christie Broke The Law When Pulling New Jersey Out Of Northeast Cap-And-Trade System, Court Rules
- 2014/03/25: Salon: N.J. court: Christie administration acted illegally in ignoring greenhouse gas regulations
- 2014/03/23: Guardian(UK): Hillary Clinton hints at second presidential run in 2016
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2014/03/28: WiredSci: Farm-Drug Companies Agree to Antibiotics Ban. More of the Same, or Fresh Start?
- 2014/03/28: Guardian(UK): White House opens door to new rules to cut methane emissions
  Administration to study magnitude of leaks from methane before deciding in autumn whether to propose new oil and gas controls
- 2014/03/28: CSM: Obama sidesteps Congress to curb methane emissions
- 2014/03/28: Grist: Obama’s new gaseous release: A strategy to cut back on methane
- 2014/03/28: RTCC: White House launches drive to cut methane emissions
- 2014/03/28: BBerg: Obama Issues Climate Plan to Plug Methane Leaks
- 2014/03/28: DeSmogBlog: Feds Weaken New Oil-By-Rail Safety Regulations Days After Announcing Them
- 2014/03/27: NOAANews: Greater Atlantic Region expected to receive nearly $5.6 million in federal funds for research to benefit the U.S. fishing industry
- 2014/03/26: HillHeat: A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Request for Science Agencies
- 2014/03/26: UCSUSA:B: Second Chance: Will EPA’s New Ozone Standard Follow the Science?
- 2014/03/25: ScienceInsider: U.S. Releases Controversial New Stream Protection Rules
- 2014/03/24: GreenGrok: Coal Ash Ponds: How Power Companies Get a ‘Bypass’ on Regulations Against Pollution
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2014/03/29: TP:JR: One House Republican’s Latest Plan To Undermine Climate Research
- 2014/03/28: ScienceInsider: At House Science Panel Hearing, Sarcasm Rules
- 2014/03/28: TP:JR: How Congressional Gridlock Stalled Wind Power’s Growth In 2013
- 2014/03/27: Grist: Congress successfully took the wind out of wind energy’s sails last year
- 2014/03/26: HillHeat: At Science Hearing, Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) Expresses Confusion on Global Warming and Scientific Method
- 2014/03/26: DeSmogBlog: Follow the Money: Three Energy Export Congressional Hearings, No Climate Change Discussion
- 2014/03/26: TP:JR: Texas Congressman [Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX)] Wants National Parks Opened To Drilling
- 2014/03/25: TP:JR: How The New Flood Insurance Reforms Make Costly Future Climate Disasters More Likely
- 2014/03/25: CCP: Oil and gas industry loopholes in 7 major environmental laws
- 2014/03/25: HillHeat: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) Rejects Human Responsibility for Climate Change
- 2014/03/25: Grist: Sen. Landrieu doesn’t need your love. Big Oil’s got her back.
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2014/03/25: RReich: The New Billionaire Political Bosses
- 2014/03/24: TP:JR: Koch-Funded Groups Fuel Assault On Kansas Clean Energy Law
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2014/03/28: CCurrents: Who Needs Leaders?
- 2014/03/26: CCurrents: Energy – Life – Economy
- 2014/03/24: Resilience: Seeing our Communities as Thriving Ecosystems: A Permaculture Approach to Community Planning
- 2014/03/24: EurActiv: UN expert: Sustainable development requires ‘checks and balances’
In nature, there is no garbage:
- 2014/03/30: NewAnthropocene: How to create wealth from waste and reduce our landfill
- 2014/03/24: EurActiv: EU predicts ‘waste tsunami’ if world fails to cut down trash
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2014/03/27: ACLU: Appeals Court Upholds Harmful Texas Abortion Restriction
- 2014/03/27: CSM: Strict Texas abortion law gets reprieve, upheld by appeals court
- 2014/03/27: Guardian(UK): Family planning groups in developing countries set for Bloomberg boost
  $50m grants scheme will support delivery of reproductive health services in Uganda, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Nicaragua
- 2014/03/25: Rabble: Buyer beware: A guide to anti-choice advertising
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2014/03/25: KSJT: NASA predicts global collapse?
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): Climate change: the situation is hopeless…let’s take the next step
- 2014/03/24: CCP: George Monbiot: Destroyer of Worlds
- 2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): Is this all humans are? Diminutive monsters of death and destruction?
  New research suggests that there was never a state of grace. We have always been the nemesis of the planet’s wildlife
Why we fight:
- 2014/03/26: Hypergeometric: The key moral question and choice of our time
How are we going to deal with this mess?
- 2014/03/26: RScribbler: Time to Start Thinking about Deposing Fossil Fuel Kings and Establishing a Global Climate Emergency Protocol
How do the corporate media measure up?
- 2014/03/27: FAIR: WaPo’s Twisted Take on Poor People Eating
- 2014/03/26: Guardian(UK): The BBC is failing to deliver a robust debate on climate change
- 2014/03/25: Wonkette: Cosmos Recap: Neil DeGrasse Tyson Beats Up On God Some More
- 2014/03/24: Grist: Chevron creates its own news outlet for a poor city that it pollutes
While activists search for effective communication techniques:
2014/03/26: UCSUSA:B: So… How Does Science Make You Feel?
2014/03/26: GreenGrok: The Dark Side of Environmental Art

Here is something for your library:
- 2014/03/: KOhlson: [Book Page] _The Soil Will Save Us – How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet_ by Kristin Ohlson
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2014/03/26: PSinclair: Mike Mann: Irreversible Climate Change a Few Years Away
- 2014/03/26: PSinclair: Galveston Oil Spill: Video
- 2014/03/25: GLaden: 2036 and Climate Change
- 2014/03/25: Grist: Watch this scientist fight climate change on the gorgeous Olympic Coast
- 2014/03/23: PSinclair: Hansen on Keystone
Meanwhile among the ‘Sue the Bastards!’ contingent:
- 2014/03/27: TruthDig: Why the Biggest Winners in the Hobby Lobby Case May Be the Koch Brothers
- 2014/03/26: TP:JR: Oil Company’s Restraining Order Bars Anti-Fracking Protestor From Grocery Store, Friends’ Houses
- 2014/03/26: Grist: Christie’s new woe: Court rules he illegally dumped climate protections
- 2014/03/25: TP:JR: Murray Energy Is Suing The EPA Over The So-Called ‘War On Coal’
- 2014/03/25: Salon: N.J. court: Christie administration acted illegally in ignoring greenhouse gas regulations
- 2014/03/24: ABC(Au): Legal challenge to Abbot Point dredging project
  Another legal challenge against the dredging project at the Port of Abbot Point is being launched today by the Mackay Conservation Group at the Federal Court in Brisbane. If the application to the court is accepted, the judicial review will look at whether the approval for the dredging and dumping of three million cubic metres of spoil, violates world heritage provisions.
This Equador suit against Chevron/Texaco has been going on for decades:
It looks like this BP trial over the Gulf oil spill is going to take a long while:
Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:
- 2014/03/30: PeakEnergy: Three Geothermal Plants With 62 MW to Go On Line in Indonesia This Year
- 2014/03/30: PeakEnergy: Two New Ideas in Wave and Tidal Power
- 2014/03/30: CleanTechnica: MAGNETIDE Project — Purpose Designed Generator For Wave Energy Technologies
- 2014/03/27: RNE: Citigroup says the ‘Age of Renewables’ [in the United States] has begun
- 2014/03/27: CleanTechnica: 2013: Renewable Energy’s Best of Times, Worst of Times
- 2014/03/26: Tyee: Are We Screwed? ‘No,’ Says Clean Energy Icon
  Society will become ‘fairer and smarter’ as renewables trounce fossil fuels, Amory Lovins explains.
- 2014/03/25: RNE: How China’s renewables revolution has tipped the scales
- 2014/03/24: TP:JR: Soon The Ocean Will Be Generating Power Near Seattle
- 2014/03/24: RNE: The European Power market’s Lost Generation
What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?
- 2014/03/26: TP:JR: How The U.S. Natural Gas Boom Just Caused More U.S. Coal Exports
What’s changing in energy investments?
- 2014/03/28: RNE: Why OZ Ethical downgraded renewable stocks to negative?
- 2014/03/28: RNE: UniSuper dumps fossil fuels from some investment funds
  The $40 billion UniSuper investment fund has announced that it will exclude fossil fuel companies from its “socially responsible” investment options as part of a refocus of its portfolio.
Hey! Let’s contaminate the aquifers for thousands of years! It’ll be a fracking gas!
- 2014/03/28: DD: Frack the USA: New map shows 1 million oil, gas wells
- 2014/03/28: Grist:States struggling to understand frackquakes
- 2014/03/26: Grist:One California oil town keeps fracking in check — by banning all drilling
- 2014/03/24: Resilience: Review: Snake Oil: how fracking’s false promise of plenty imperils our future
- 2014/03/24: DeSmogBlog: Research Shows Some Test Methods Miss 99 Percent of Radium in Fracking Waste
On the gas and oil front:
- 2014/03/28: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  
  Dated Brent Spot….108.07
  
  WTI Cushing Spot….101.67
- 2014/03/30: CleanTechnica: Why The Oil & Gas Industry Makes Such A Big Deal Of The Shale (Retirement) Party
- 2014/03/28: RT: Total and Lukoil in talks to jointly develop Russian shale
- 2014/03/26: Resilience: World crude production 2013 without shale oil is back to 2005 levels
In the gas and oil corps:
- 2014/03/30: PeakEnergy: Chevron cuts production outlook, raises oil price view
- 2014/03/24: TP:JR: Why You Shouldn’t Applaud Exxon’s Decision To Disclose Climate Change Risks
- 2014/03/24: Guardian(UK): Exxon Mobil’s commitment to carbon asset risk is just the beginning
- 2014/03/24: Grist: ExxonMobil agrees to report on its climate vulnerabilities. Here’s why that’s a good thing.
- 2014/03/23: CSW: A huge deal: Exxon agrees to evaluate the “stranded asset” risk of climate action
- 2014/03/23: PSinclair: Huge: Exxon Will Advise Investors on Carbon Bubble Exposure
And in pipeline news:
- 2014/03/26: Asia Times: China runs risk with new gas import route [through Central Asia]
Ships and boats and trains — How to tranport the stuff?
- 2014/03/28: DeSmogBlog: Feds Weaken New Oil-By-Rail Safety Regulations Days After Announcing Them
- 2014/03/27: Grist: Why we can’t seem to stop oil-filled rail cars from going boom
- 2014/03/27: DeSmogBlog: Oil Shipments Turn Albany Into “Houston on the Hudson” As Communities Across Country Fight Oil-By-Rail Proposals
- 2014/03/26: OilChange: Crude by Rail Spills Increased 10 Times from 2008-2013
- 2014/03/26: TP:JR: Battle Begins Over Plan To Send Large Crude Oil Trains Through California Cities
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2014/03/27: RT: Highly powerful new biofuel could change rocket engines forever
- 2014/03/26: Eureka: Engineered bacteria produce biofuel alternative for high-energy rocket fuel
- 2014/03/26: LLNL: Lawrence Livermore scientists discover bacterial resistance to improve biofuel production
The answer my friend…
- 2014/03/28: TP:JR: How Congressional Gridlock Stalled Wind Power’s Growth In 2013
- 2014/03/27: Grist: Congress successfully took the wind out of wind energy’s sails last year
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2014/03/30: CleanTechnica: Why Solar Isn’t Enough
- 2014/03/29: RealEconomics: Solar’s growing promise
- 2014/03/29: JQuiggin: West facing solar panels
- 2014/03/28: CleanTechnica: Kyocera Working To Bring 22%-Efficient Solar Panels To Residential Market
- 2014/03/28: UBuffalo: Rainbow-catching waveguide could revolutionize energy technologies
  By slowing and absorbing certain wavelengths of light, engineers open new possibilities in solar power, thermal energy recycling and stealth technology
- 2014/03/28: CleanTechnica: Construction Of 250 MW First Solar & Moapa Paiute Tribe Solar Project Begins
- 2014/03/27: RNE: CPV lives: SunPower in deal for major solar projects in China
- 2014/03/27: CleanTechnica: Silicon Solar Photovoltaic Cell That Can Turn Infrared Radiation Into Electricity Created
- 2014/03/26: RNE: Alinta wants small solar systems to act like coal generators
- 2014/03/25: CleanTechnica: New Solar Cell Material Is Solar Cell By Day & Light Panel By Night
- 2014/03/25: CleanTechnica: 30 MW Solar PV Power Plant Being Developed In California By Abengoa
- 2014/03/25: RNE: How Romania became a GW-scale solar market
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: Controlled Placement Of Carbon Nanotubes Creates Big Boost In Solar Cell Performance
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: Italy, Spain, & Germany Hit Commercial Solar Grid Parity In 2013
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: Public Utilities & Private Companies In Mexico Teaming Up To Promote Renewables
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: Greenwood Biosar Completes Panama’s 1st Utility-Scale Solar Power Plant
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2014/03/28: CSM: Thorium: a safer nuclear power
- 2014/03/27: WNN: Commercial operation for Yangjiang 1
  Unit 1 of the Yangjiang plant in China’s Guangdong province has entered commercial operation, becoming China’s 20th operating nuclear power reactor.
- 2014/03/25: CPunch: Three Mile Island, 35 Years Later — A Case of Too Little Information
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2014/03/28: CleanTechnica: Californium — Element Is Potential Game-Changer In Field Of Nuclear Waste Storage, Research Suggests
- 2014/03/27: EneNews: TV: US Senators want federal agents near WIPP to check if safe … Public “skeptical whole truth about environmental risks shared”…
- 2014/03/27: EneNews: TV: More workers rushed to hospital at [Hanford] U.S. nuclear site — 17 sickened in past week…
- 2014/03/26: EneNews: Mexicans concerned, anxious about WIPP radiation release — City of 2.5 million nearly 200 miles away “within transnational evacuation zone in event of a nuclear disaster”…
- 2014/03/26: FukuLeaks: 11 Injured At Hanford Nuclear Site
- 2014/03/26: EneNews: TV: 11 workers at U.S. nuclear site [Hanford] transported to medical facilities — Suffering nose bleeds, chest pains, coughing up blood — Multiple locations evacuated…
- 2014/03/25: EneNews: Radiation Expert: 5 types of plutonium were released from WIPP; Officials not informing public…
- 2014/03/23: EneNews: “Radiation leaks could still be occurring” at WIPP — Locals worried since “no one knows anything” …
Feed-In-Tariffs (Net Metering & Time-of-Use Tariffs) are being variously implemented around the world:
- 2014/03/29: CleanTechnica: Is A Value Of Solar Tariff (VOST) Really Better Than Net Metering?
- 2014/03/24: RNE: Qld regions to get just 6.3c/kWh for solar exports
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2014/03/26: RNE: Building the electricity system of the future
How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?
- 2014/03/28: RNE: Peer to peer solar energy trading – who will profit first?
- 2014/03/28: RNE: Can utilities avoid same fate as telecom companies?
- 2014/03/26: RNE: Tesla battery business plan gives energy utilities strife
- 2014/03/25: RNE: How Tesla could take utility customers off-grid
- 2014/03/25: RNE: Morgan Stanley: Tipping point nears for going off grid
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2014/03/25: CleanTechnica: US Energy Efficiency Programs Cost 2 Cents Per Kilowatt-Hour Saved
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: LED Lamp Efficiency To Continue Improving As Cost Decreases
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: Brighter, More Resilient LEDs Via New Processing Technique
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2014/03/29: CleanTechnica: GM Wants To Ban Direct Tesla Sales In Ohio
- 2014/03/27: RNE: Charging on the cheap: Making electric vehicles mainstream
- 2014/03/25: UCSUSA:B: An Electric Spring: 3 Strong Trends in the EV Market
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: Solar & Electrified Vehicle News Roundup…
- 2014/03/24: RNE: EV wedge: How electric vehicle fuel savings vary by country
As for Energy Storage:
- 2014/03/28: PeakEnergy: Update on Ambri’s Liquid Metal Grid-Scale Battery
- 2014/03/26: CleanTechnica: Lithium-Air Batteries Planned By Volkswagen
- 2014/03/25: RNE: Solar storage market tipped to boom in Germany
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: Next-Gen High-Energy-Density Batteries Moving Closer — Uniform Antimony Nanocrystals Produced For First Time
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2014/03/24: UCSUSA: Colgate-Palmolive Latest Company to Jump on Deforestation-Free Palm Oil Bandwagon/A>
- 2014/03/24: UCSUSA: General Mills Commits to Deforestation-Free Palm Oil
Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:
- 2014/03/24: Resilience: Property Insurance: One of the first to go
Who’s fielding theFAQs?
- 2014/03/28: TheConversation: Explainer: how are IPCC reports written?
What do we have in (weekly) lists?
- 2014/03/29: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #13B by John Hartz
- 2014/03/26: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #13A by John Hartz
- 2014/03/24: FukuLeaks: Fukushima & Nuclear News Roundup
- 2014/03/24: CleanTechnica: Solar & Electrified Vehicle News Roundup…
- 2014/03/24: Stoat: Rowing, and some other stuff
Anything in pithy (or piffling) quotes this week?
- 2014/03/25: P3: Since the start of the industrial revolution, mankind has been burning fossil fuel…
- 2014/03/25: Maribo: Quote of the Week: Time Magazine on climate change, in 1956
- 2014/03/24: P3: evidence is to be “believed” or “denied” as if the scientific papers are so many Lutheran creeds pinned to a door
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.
- 2014/03/18: LFG: Will they ever, ever, ever get it?
- 2014/03/25: DD: This old Earth is warming up: Young- Earth creationists mock climate science
- 2014/03/26: TFTJO: A corollary to Godwin’s law: the “law of genocidal intentions”
- 2014/03/25: V VattsUWT Pseuds’ Corner
- 2014/03/27: Grist: Half of voters have no idea who the Koch brothers are — so here’s a quick and dirty primer
- 2014/03/25: NYT:PK: Things Go Better With Kochs
- 2014/03/26: Stoat: Two unprecedented things occurring at the same time must be related as cause and effect
- 2014/03/28: JQuiggin: Climate denial and the decline of the IPA
- 2014/03/29: HotWhopper: On contrarian contradictions and the newest IPCC report, featuring Matt Ridley and Richard Tol
- 2014/03/29: ERabett: Belief
- 2014/02/17: Digby: Damnatio Memoriae for climate deniers
- 2014/03/29: RealEconomics: Have the Climate Change deniers won?
- 2014/03/29: CBC: Why ‘the skeptical environmentalist’ won’t switch off during Earth Hour
- 2014/03/24: Stoat: Pattern Recognition in Physics: its back! Sort of
- 2014/03/24: TP:JR: Koch-Funded Groups Fuel Assault On Kansas Clean Energy Law
- 2014/03/23: IP: Claim – climate scientists are running scared of debates
This week in intimidation:
2014/03/28: TP:JR: Be Worried: Climate Scientists Under Attack
2014/03/27: Guardian(UK): Climate science sceptics target philosopher with toxic hate mail
2014/03/26: IP: And then there’s hypocrisy
2014/03/26: ATTPh: Climateball(TM)
2014/03/26: GLaden: Climate Science Denialists Target Academic in Hate Campaign
2014/03/26: HotWhopper: Anthony Watts lynch mob of mindless louts attack another university professor
2014/03/25: DeSmogBlog: Climate Change Philosopher A Target Of Abusive Hate Campaign
2014/03/25: NYT:PK: What America Isn’t, Or Anyway Wasn’t

More on that forced retraction of the Recursive Fury paper:
2014/03/29: HotWhopper: Unbalanced Antagonism: The UWA Vice-Chancellor stands up to a “vexatious” blogger
2014/03/29: ERabett: Steve McIntyre in the library with the knife
2014/03/25: P3: Recursive Fury Update
2014/03/24: S&R: Liability fears drive psychology journal to retract climate study
The journal Frontiers retracted a study of conspiracy accusations among climate change deniers even though their “investigation did not identify any issues with the academic and ethical aspects of the study.”
Meanwhile in the ‘clean coal’ saga:
2014/03/24: GreenGrok: Coal Ash Ponds: How Power Companies Get a ‘Bypass’ on Regulations Against Pollution

As for climate miscellanea:
- 2014/03/28: Grist: Science alone can’t save us, says [Hayhoe] famous climate scientist (gulp)
- 2014/03/25: ATTPh: Live From Golgafrincham
- 2014/03/28: CleanTechnica: New Super-Strong Ceramic Material Inspired By Mother-Of-Pearl Created
- 2014/03/27: CCurrents: On Climate Impasse: Appetite And Substitutes
- 2014/03/25: UKISS: It’s going to be hot… very hot
- 2014/03/30: ABC(Au): Heart attacks spike following start of daylight saving time, US study finds
- 2014/03/24: MGS: Harry Bulkeley: A few questions about global warming — Answered
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- ClimatePrediction: weather@home
- EJF: Environmental Justice Foundation
- NASA: Operation IceBridge (project page)
- NASA: Operation IceBridge (blog)
- MagneTide
- Wiki: Damnatio Memoriae
- The Keeling Curve
- Wisc:SSEC: Sea Surface Temperatures
- Grain
- Renew Economy
- IEA: World Energy Outlook
- Expose the TPP
- EarthSky – Science News, Great Photos, Sky Alerts
- NOAA:NMFS: Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events
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.

“Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts. One day, Mother Nature shows up and blows out your knee caps.” -Denis Hayes
- Global Warming Links
- Global Warming News Archive
- Energy
- Energy News
- Environmental Issues
- —
- H.E. Taylor (homepage)
Last modified March 30, 2014

2 thoughts on “Another Week of Global Warming News, March 30, 2014”

Hans says:

April 1, 2014 at 8:13 pm

More links, much more links. The cold world simply need more links to get warmer.

LikeLike

freddy says:

April 8, 2014 at 8:02 am

Hans, honestly, how many links did you try? Have you found any which report doubts about global warming?

LikeLike

	carmic20 on AFTIC Has Moved
	Coby Beck on AFTIC Has Moved
	Alan Lowey on AFTIC Has Moved
	carmic20 on Glaciers have always grown and…
	Coby Beck on Vineland Was Full Of Grap…

Information is not Knowledge…Knowledge is not Wisdom

March 30, 2014

Live and direct from the black humour hangout:

Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:

The IPCC Working Group 2 report has not yet been released, but there have been a lot of leaks and comments:

Another Earth Hour has rolled around:

The WMO released their Status of the Global Climate report this week:

Something to ponder – our place in the world:

The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund needs help:

Is there a change in the wind? or is it my imagination?

How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

And on the Bottom Line:

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

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, and:

Food Prices are still problematic:

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

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

A relatively quiet week in the hurricane wars. TC Gillian and TD04W faded away. There is an unreported cyclone between Madagascar and the mainland:

While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

This week in notable weather:

Got any forecasts?

This week in the New Normal — extreme weather:

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

As for GHGs:

Aerosols are making their presence felt:

What’s new in the Weather Machine?

Regarding Climate Sensitivity:

Yes we have feedbacks:

And on the ENSO front:

As for the temperature record:

What’s new in proxies?

Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

While in the paleoclimate:

And in historical times:

What’s new in Biodiversity?

And on the extinction watch:

More GW impacts are being seen:

And then there are the world’s forests:

Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

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

Changes in natural cycles are showing up:

On the tornado front:

As for heatwaves and wild fires:

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:

As for carbon sequestration:

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

Meanwhile in the journals:

And other significant documents:

As for miscellaneous science:

In the science organizations:

More DIY science:

What’s new in models?

What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

Regarding Levin:

Regarding Mann:

Regarding Tol:

The Pielke fan clubbe, alas:

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:

A significant development in the global competition for Rare Earths:

Regarding the EU FQD: Fuel Quality Directive:

These ‘free trade’ treaties should be called the corporate control treaties:

There are power stuggles in Ukraine but the confrontation with Russia is stabilizing:

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

What are the activists up to?

Polar Vortex? Rossby Waves? Blocking Patterns? Arctic Oscillation?

What is the Arctic melt doing to our weather?

In Manitoba, the question of shipping oil via Churchill lingers troublingly.

[Note the decision is federal, not provincial.]:

Leaks and spills

Jeez! It’s getting hard to keep all the spills and leaks straight. You need a map. Let’s see…: