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

Another Week in the Ecological Crisis

Information is not Knowledge…Knowledge is not Wisdom

June 8, 2014

Chuckles, COP20+, Globe, Singapore, EPA Rule, EPA Reaction, Abnormal Autumn
Energiewende Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Crap Detector, EcoCrime, Cook
Fukushima: Note, News, Policies, Related Papers
Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Antarctica
Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, GMOs, Production
Hurricanes, Monsoon, Notable Weather, GHGs, Solar, Aerosols, Volcanoes
Ozone, ENSO, Temperatures, Proxies, Paleoclimate
Oceans, Biosphere, Extinctions, Bees & CCD, Insects
Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Disease, Smog & Health
Wildfires, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Adaptation
Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Science Orgs, Models, Free Science, Pielke
International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Hormuz, South China Sea, Ukraine, Geopolitics
Resources, Solar Spat, FQD , Law & Activism, Activism, Resistance, Divestment, Polls, H2O Biz
National Politics: Britain, Europe, India, China, Japan, Asia, Africa, South America
Australia, Abbott, CSG, MDBP, Tas Forest Deal, RET, Turnbull
Canada, Science Policy, Mitigation, Energy Policy, ELA, Pipelines, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Ontario
America, Keystone, Spills & Leaks, Birth Control, Exports, 2014/2016, USAdmin, Congress
Ecological Economics, DeGrowth, IPAT, Apocalypso, Another Day, Fixes
Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts, Mann Suit, BP Trial
Energy, Transitions, Energy Investments, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Oil Transportation
Energy Independence, Peak Oil, Biofuel, Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Fusion
FITs, Hydrogen, Utilities, Efficiency, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage
Insurance, Other Lists, Quotes, Carbon Lobby, Tol, Miscellaneous, Useful Links
Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig

Here’s a wee chuckle for ye:

This week in snark:

2014/06/03: Wonkette: Science Spotlight: Maybe If They Named The Lady Hurricanes ‘Lorena’
2014/06/03: Wonkette: GOP Heroes Will Shut Down Government Before They Let EPA Communists Force You To Breathe Clean Air
2014/06/02: Onion: New EPA Regulations Would Force Power Plants To Find 30% More Loopholes By 2030

Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:
- 2014/06/06: BBC: Upset at UN climate talks as ministers go missing
  Negotiators and campaigners have reacted angrily to the failure of many environment ministers to attend UN talks in Bonn. They say governments gave an undertaking last year to come here and update plans to cut emissions. But so far, around 50 ministers have turned up, with representatives from the UK, France and Brazil notably absent. Over 130 turned up in Warsaw for the last major talks session.
- 2014/06/06: RTCC: Climate campaigners tell leaders to ‘stand with us, or stand aside’
  A coalition of 75 NGOs has delivered a set of demands for more climate ambition to Venezuelan, Peruvian and French diplomats charged with coordinating UN negotiations over the next year.
- 2014/06/06: ABC(Au): G7 leaders back 2015 climate deal, aim to build on US momentum
  The world’s richest countries announced their strong determination to sign up to a global deal on greenhouse gas emissions at next year’s climate negotiations.
- 2014/06/05: RTCC: UN outlines criteria for 2015 climate deal pledges
- 2014/06/04: RTCC: Climate vulnerable states call for ‘concrete action’ at UN talks
- 2014/06/03: Reuters: China plan to cap CO2 emissions seen turning point in climate talks
- 2014/06/03: RTCC: Show us the money if countries are to curb climate change: IEA
  $53 trillion must be channelled towards low carbon energy by 2035 to stave off dangerous climate change, says IEA Investment in low carbon sources of energy will fall well short of what is needed to stave off climate change unless a breakthrough is reached in stalled UN climate talks, the IEA said in a report on Tuesday.
- 2014/06/02: RTCC: EU calls for tougher scrutiny on 2015 climate deal carbon pledges
The Globe summit went down this week in Mexico City:
There was also a mega-conference in Singapore which got surprisingly little press:
The big news this week has been the new EPA Carbon Emissions Rule:
- 2014/06/02: EPA: [several pdfs] Carbon Pollution Standards – Clean Power Plan Proposed Rule
- 2014/06/02: EPA: [Press Release] EPA Proposes First Guidelines to Cut Carbon Pollution from Existing Power Plants
  Clean Power Plan is flexible proposal to ensure a healthier environment, spur innovation and strengthen the economy
- 2014/06/03: HillHeat: Text of EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s Speech on the Clean Power Plan
- 2014/06/03: BBerg: EPA Head Says Significant Changes Possible in Carbon Plan
  The Obama administration will revise its proposal to fight climate change in the next year if individual states show they can’t meet the targets, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said. Gina McCarthy, administrator of the agency that wrote the proposal issued yesterday, said she expects “significant” revisions in the state emission goals before a final rule is issued next year.
- 2014/06/03: CCP: John Abraham: President Obama gets serious on climate change
- 2014/06/03: TheConversation: Obama’s plan for coal power delivers on health and climate
- 2014/06/03: RT: Obama launches biggest US plan to cut greenhouse emissions
- 2014/06/03: PLNA: U.S Announces Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases
- 2014/06/03: GreenGrok: EPA’s Carbon Rule: State Goals
- 2014/06/02: CCP: EPA Administrator McCarth’s Remarks Announcing Clean Power Plan, As Prepared
- 2014/06/02: IPSNews: U.S. Proposes “Revolutionary” Carbon Emissions Rule
- 2014/06/02: NatGeo: 4 Key Takeaways From EPA’s New Rules for Power Plants
  The emissions goals may be easier to meet than many expect, but the coal industry and several states face big challenges.
- 2014/06/02: AutoBG: EPA proposes new rules to make US power plants 30 percent cleaner by 2030
- 2014/06/02: TruthDig: Obama Unveils Rules to Reduce Carbon Pollution by 30 Percent
- 2014/06/02: GreenGrok: Obama’s New Carbon Emissions Rule: Drumroll Please…
- 2014/06/02: CBC: U.S. carbon dioxide limits touted by EPA as economically wise
  Canadian government challenged to come up with similar proposals for oil and gas
- 2014/06/02: CBC: U.S. move on coal emissions not a free ride for Canada
  New EPA regulations are meant to clean the air and put pressure on climate change holdouts
- 2014/06/02: TheCanadian: Obama gets tough on coal plant emissions with 30% reduction goal
- 2014/06/02: NatureN: EPA unveils emissions plan for existing power plants
  Draft regulations call for a 30% cut to US facilities’ carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.
- 2014/06/02: TreeHugger: Obama and EPA unveil Clean Power Plan that targets 30% emission reductions by 2030
- 2014/06/02: UCSUSA: EPA Moves to Curb Emissions from Existing Power Plants
- 2014/06/02: RTCC: US carbon cuts will leave world ‘safer and more stable’ says Obama
  U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration proposed an historic yet arguably modest pollution rule for the nation’s greatest source of greenhouse gases on Monday.
Reactions to the EPA Carbon Emissions Rule have been hot and heavy:
- 2014/06/08: CleanTechnica: US Climate Action “Costs” Illuminated
- 2014/06/07: SkS: 2014 SkS News Bulletin #5: Obama’s Climate Change Inititiative by John Hartz
- 2014/06/07: CCurrents: Pro-gas Obama’s EPA-based Plan To Reduce Coal-based Pollution Amounts To Climate Change Inaction [Polya]
- 2014/06/06: UCSUSA:B: EPA Carbon Standard Opens the Door for Renewables, Now States Must Take Them over the Threshold
- 2014/06/06: ICN: 7 Reasons Why Wall St. Isn’t Buying the ‘War on Coal’
  Traders largely shrugged off dire warnings about EPA’s climate rule released on Monday. By Thursday the Dow and the S&P 500 had settled at record highs.
- 2014/06/06: TP:JR: How Obama’s Climate Rule Could Change The U.S. Job Market
- 2014/06/06: PSinclair: Dispensing with Nonsense on New CO2 Rules
- 2014/06/06: UCSUSA:B: New EPA Power Plant Rule Shows How Gina McCarthy Is Like Thomas Jefferson at the Dawn of America
- 2014/06/06: Resilience: An inconvenient truth: US proposed emission cuts too little too late
- 2014/06/06: ERabett: Paul Krugman Adopts Eli Rabett’s Simple Plan to Save the World
- 2014/06/05: CSM: Will new EPA power plant rules trade carbon for methane?
- 2014/06/05: ERabett:BSD: Random impressions following the Obama’s move on climate
- 2014/06/05: Grist: Here’s how enviros plan to push for stronger EPA climate rules
- 2014/06/05: RTCC: Obama climate plan will deliver only a quarter of pledged 2030 cuts
- 2014/06/05: DeSmogBlog: Obama’s New Climate Regulations Could Bring More U.S. Coal to B.C. for Export
- 2014/06/05: SciAm:PI: Clean Power Plan includes focus on climate, health, and security
- 2014/06/05: UCSUSA:B: EPA’s Proposed Climate Change Rule: Can We Argue About the Right Things This Time?
- 2014/06/05: UCSUSA:B: Gina McCarthy, the Power Plant Carbon Standards, and Reducing the Risk of Power Outages
- 2014/06/05: ICN: Green States & Black States: Obama’s Climate Plan Paints U.S. in New Colors
  The administration wants to get enough states supporting its Clean Power Plan to color the map mostly low-carbon green, instead of coal black.
- 2014/06/05: PSinclair: American Lung Association TV Ads Support New Carbon Regs
- 2014/06/05: TP:JR: Been There, Done That: New EPA Rule Is No Big Deal In Colorado
- 2014/06/05: TP:JR: How Some States Are Making Carbon Pollution Cuts Really Easy
- 2014/06/05: NakedCapitalism: Obama’s Climate Plan is Leaking Methane
- 2014/06/05: TP:JR: No, EPA’s New Regulations Are Not Going To Make The Poor Poorer
- 2014/06/05: DemNow: EPA Moves to Cut Coal Pollution, But Critics Say Plan Falls Short on Real Emissions Reduction
- 2014/06/05: Berkeley:B: The ‘Yoga Theorem’ and the EPA’s new carbon-emissions policy
- 2014/06/04: NUPGE: U.S. acts on climate change! Will Canada do the same?
- 2014/06/04: Nation: Obama’s Climate Regulations: A Step in the Right Direction, but Nowhere Close to What We Need
- 2014/06/04: DeSmogBlog: US Chamber Predicts Economic Apocalypse From New Carbon Rules Despite Opposite Reality
- 2014/06/04: CSW: Should EPA’s proposed carbon pollution rule be tougher?
- 2014/06/04: Grist: How much cleaner will Obama’s climate rules make your state?
- 2014/06/04: TP:JR: Citing Concern For The Poor, GOP Senators Ask Obama To Ax EPA Climate Rule
- 2014/06/04: TP:JR: How Obama’s Climate Plan Accommodates Coal States
- 2014/06/04: TP:JR: How Does The New EPA Rule Stack Up Against Obama’s Other Climate Actions?
- 2014/06/04: Rabble:EB: Changing the discussion on the high carbon economy
- 2014/06/04: WSWS: Obama administration global warming regulation incorporates shift already underway
- 2014/06/04: BBerg: Obama Emission Rules Discount Gas Leaks, Scientists Say
- 2014/06/03: GreenPeace(UK): Policy notebook: Why Obama’s new rules on air pollution matter, and aren’t that exciting
- 2014/06/03: ICN: How Ambitious Is EPA’s Climate Change Rule, Really?
  By allowing states extraordinary flexibility in meeting the new standards, the EPA chose not to set the bar very high for several coal states.
- 2014/06/03: Stoat: Obama’s recent executive order on carbon emissions – A round-up of reactions…
- 2014/06/03: CBC: Obama’s climate change plan: It’s wait and see for energy industry
- 2014/06/03: TP:JR: Sorry Rand Paul, Not Only Is The EPA Carbon Rule Legal, It’s Mandated By Law
- 2014/06/03: InformedComment: Faced with Global Warming Threat, Obama fudges EPA Carbon Reduction
- 2014/06/03: TruthDig: Saving the World One Coal Plant at a Time
- 2014/06/03: BBerg: U.S. Fossil-Fuel Cut Must Go Deeper to Spur Climate Fight
- 2014/06/03: CSM: Could Obama’s climate plan spur China to action?
- 2014/06/03: ArcticNews: Obama’s Power Plant Rules: Too Little, Too Late, Too Ineffective
- 2014/06/03: KSJT: Media pundits, analyzers, and business interests let fly on EPA’s new power plant CO2 rules.
- 2014/06/03: EurActiv: EU welcomes ‘strongest ever’ climate action by Obama
- 2014/06/03: EUO: EU welcomes Obama’s climate change plans
- 2014/06/03: PSinclair: Defending the New Carbon Plan, Incoming Fire from Both Sides
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): US pollution reduction unlikely to impact on Australian resource companies
- 2014/06/03: Xinhuanet: China welcomes U.S. greenhouse gas plan
- 2014/06/03: Grist: Even Republican voters support Obama’s new climate rule
- 2014/06/03: Grist: Why Obama’s carbon regs will help kids of color breathe easier
- 2014/06/03: Grist: Conservatives and coal industry are rallying troops against Obama’s climate rules
- 2014/06/03: DeSmogBlog: Obama’s New Climate Plan Leaves Canada in the Dust
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): Barack Obama plans 30 per cent cuts in power carbon emissions, hailed as ‘super bowl of climate change’ regulation
- 2014/06/03: HuffPo: Kudos to the White House and EPA on the New Climate Regulations by Jeffrey Sachs
- 2014/06/03: NYT: A Paltry Start in Curbing Global Warming
- 2014/06/02: CNN: Robert Redford: Take the path to clean energy
- 2014/06/02: UN: UN officials hail ‘significant’ move by US to curb power plant emissions
- 2014/06/02: Nation: The GOP Is Freaking Out Over the EPA’s Carbon Rules. Why Aren’t Power Companies?
- 2014/06/02: BBC: Is Obama’s climate ‘regime change’ unstoppable?
- 2014/06/02: ICN: How Ambitious Is EPA’s Climate Change Rule, Really?
  By allowing states extraordinary flexibility in meeting the new standards, the EPA chose not to set the bar very high for several coal states.
- 2014/06/02: Grist: The nine things you need to know about Obama’s new climate rules
- 2014/06/02: UCSUSA:B: EPA Carbon Standards Announcement: A Potential Climate Game Changer
- 2014/06/02: Vox: Obama’s climate change regulations are less ambitious than what Republicans were proposing in 2008
- 2014/06/02: CERES: Unilever, VF Corp., Mars Incorporated and New York State Comptroller Join 173 Companies and Investors in Supporting EPA’s New Carbon Standard
  Power Plant Standard Called “Critical Step in Moving Our Country Towards a Clean Energy Economy”
- 2014/06/02: NYT:PK: Coal Comfort
- 2014/06/02: Wunderground: Boldest Presidental Action Ever Taken to Combat Climate Change: EPA’s New Regulations
- 2014/06/02: EnvEcon: “E.P.A. to Seek 30 Percent Cut in Carbon Emissions by 2030”
- 2014/06/02: TCoE: A few thoughts on the new EPA rules
- 2014/06/02: TP:JR: EPA Issues Breakthrough Carbon Pollution Rule, Media Stuck In Old Habits
- 2014/06/02: KSJT: Flood of Ink on the way – First wave already hits as Obama/EPA squares off vs.Big Coal
- 2014/06/02: TP:JR: Kansas Approves New Coal Plant Three Days Before Power Plant Emission Rules Are Announced
- 2014/06/02: P3: Obama’s Calibrated Move
- 2014/06/02: PI: Pembina reacts to U.S. plan to cut pollution from power plants
  U.S. action in sharp contrast with Canada’s ongoing failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas sector
- 2014/06/02: RTCC: UN climate chief [Figueres] backs Obama’s new US carbon cuts
- 2014/06/02: SF Gate: States move to blunt Obama carbon reduction plan
- 2014/06/02: Grist: World cautiously relieved by Obama’s climate announcement
- 2014/06/02: SciNews: New Obama Climate Rules Draw Darts and Delight
- 2014/06/02: RTCC: What does the world think about new US carbon cuts?
- 2014/06/02: BBC: US to unveil sharp curbs on coal power plants
- 2014/06/01: Grist: Obama’s proposed power plant rules fall slightly short of environmentalists’ hopes
- 2014/06/01: SciAm:PI: New Greenhouse Gas Rule Will Benefit Both Climate and Health
- 2014/06/01: HillHeat: Draft EPA Rule Will Seek 30 Percent Cut In Carbon Pollution From Existing Power Plants
- 2014/06/01: TP:JR: WSJ: EPA Rule Will Cut Power Plant Emissions By 30 Percent By 2030
- 2014/05/30: TP:JR: 7 Groups Attacking The President’s Plan To Cut Carbon Pollution, Even Though It Hasn’t Been Released Yet
  U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans For Prosperity (AFP), American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), National Mining Association (NMA), Heritage Foundation & American Energy Alliance/Institute For Energy Research
The Australian Climate Council released their Abnormal Autumn report this week:
- 2014/06/01: ClimateCouncil(Au): [link to 914k pdf] Seasonal Update: Abnormal Autumn
- 2014/06/02: TheConversation: ‘Abnormal autumn’ shows the climate system is in a foul mood
- 2014/06/02: RNE: Climate Council says last two years Australia’s hottest
How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?
- 2014/06/07: PSinclair: Graph of the Day: Citizen Ownership of the German Solar Revolution
- 2014/06/06: Lenz: Stretching Out Payments for Existing Renewable Installations
- 2014/06/04: Lenz: Nuclear Decline and Renewable Growth in Germany
- 2014/06/03: CleanTechnica: Renewable Energy Growth Greater Than Nuclear Decline in Germany
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2014/06/06: CDreams: Measure Climate-Related Destruction in the Many Trillions of Dollars: UN
  A look at only one subset of negative impacts of global warming – the loss of vital coral reefs – would cost an estimated $11.9 trillion in the coming years
- 2014/06/06: RNE: Oz coal at risk as major economies turn on fossil fuels
  The Australian coal industry is at significant financial risk of stranded assets as major global powers act on climate change, with regulatory changes threatening to destabilise a number of Australian projects.
- 2014/06/05: RTCC: China’s curbs on coal a rising risk for investors – report
- 2014/06/05: BBerg: China Coal Spending of $21 Billion Seen Risked by Climate Rules
  Spending by Chinese companies of $21 billion last year on coal reserves might be wasted amid tougher environmental rules and weaker growth in electricity demand, according to a report released today.
Carbon Tariffs have come up again:
- 2014/06/06: EconView: Paul Krugman: The Climate Domino – On the administration’s new climate rules
- 2014/06/05: NYT: The Climate Domino
Here is something for your Crap Detector:
- Logical Fallacies Poster
- 2014/06/01: UU: A heuristic for sorting science stories in the news
The world inches toward creating a global legal framework for ecological crime:
- 2014/06/05: PSinclair: Could Fossil Fuel Execs be Personally Liable for Climate Damages?
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2014/06/07: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #23 by John Hartz
- 2014/06/07: SkS: 2014 SkS News Bulletin #5: Obama’s Climate Change Inititiative by John Hartz
- 2014/06/06: SkS: Resources and links documenting Tol’s 24 errors by John Cook
- 2014/06/04: SkS: Richard Tol accidentally confirms the 97% global warming consensus by dana1981
- 2014/06/04: SkS: The Skepticism In Skeptical Science by CollinMaessen
- 2014/06/03: SkS: President Obama gets serious on climate change by John Abraham
- 2014/06/02: SkS: Republican witness admits the expert consensus on human-caused global warming is real by dana1981
- 2014/06/01: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly Digest #22 by John Hartz
A note on theFukushima disaster:

It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.]

And the IAEA is now saying 40 years too.

[Now some people are talking about a century or more. Sealing it in concrete for 500 years.]

We’ll see.

At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.

Meanwhile…

It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.

How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?

Do they have an agenda?

Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?

Do they want to write a good news story?

Do they want to write a bad news story?

Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?

Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?

One fundamental question I would like to see answered:

If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:
- 2014/06/07: EneNews: Senior Scientist: US West Coast had radiation dose estimated at 5 microsieverts from Fukushima…
- 2014/06/06: EneNews: Japan TV: Gov’t officials discover nuclear material flowing into ground at Fukushima; Releases thought to be ongoing for months…
- 2014/06/06: CleanTechnica: TEPCO Starts Fukushima Ice Wall Construction
- 2014/06/05: FukuLeaks: NRA Discovers Major Radioactive Tank Leak At Fukushima Daiichi
- 2014/06/04: EneNews: Study: Water helps dissolve Fukushima’s melted nuclear cores, accelerates corrosion…
- 2014/06/04: EneNews: US Experts: Fukushima melted fuel “a concern for millennia” – Risk of criticality from corium moving, redistributing…
- 2014/06/04: EneNews: Senior Scientist: Fukushima is not under control; It has ‘alarm bells’ going off on West Coast…
- 2014/06/03: EneNews: Japanese Journalist: Workers “very worried” about deformed 400 ft. structure falling on Fukushima reactor buildings and causing another crisis…
- 2014/06/03: EneNews: Officials concerned ice wall to “trigger significant subsidence” and further endanger reactor buildings…
- 2014/06/03: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Unit 3 Spent Fuel Pool Debris Removal Progress
- 2014/06/03: TruthDig: Newsflash: Fukushima Is Still a Disaster
- 2014/06/03: EneNews: Strontium reaches 500 Billion Bq/mÂ³ in basements at Fukushima — Record levels reported at 5 locations near ocean…
- 2014/06/02: EneNews: Fukushima Nuclear Chief after 3/11: It will be like ‘China Syndrome’ film, fuel to melt away…
- 2014/06/02: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Unit 4; 968 Fuel Assemblies Removed
- 2014/06/02: FukuLeaks: Frozen Wall Installation Begins By Unit 1
- 2014/06/02: FukuLeaks: New Unit 1 Findings Indicate Contamination Path
- 2014/06/02: BBC: Japan begins building Fukushima ice wall
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Japan builds underground ice wall at Fukushima nuclear plant
- 2014/06/02: IndiaTimes: Japan to start building underground ice wall at Fukushima
- 2014/06/01: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Daiichi Frozen Wall Install Begins Monday
- 2014/06/01: FukuLeaks: [Goshi] Hosono Confirms TEPCO Corporate Wanted To Abandon Fukushima Daiichi
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
- 2014/06/05: FukuLeaks: Japan’s Nuclear Regulator Ignores Scientists Warnings Again
What do we have for Fukushima related papers this week?
- 2014/06/05: ACPD: Detailed source term estimation of the atmospheric release for the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident by coupling simulations of atmospheric dispersion model with improved deposition scheme and oceanic dispersion model by G. Katata et al.
The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:
- 2014/06/07: Dosbat: PIOMAS May 2014. Part 2
- 2014/06/04: Dosbat: PIOMAS May 2014. Part 1.
- 2014/06/06: RScribbler: Ten Cubic Kilometers of Ice Lost From Jakobshavn Glacier in Less than One Month
- 2014/06/06: CPunch: The Great Melt — Arctic Sea Ice in Steep Decline
- 2014/06/05: ASI: Jakobshavn calves a(nother) big one
- 2014/06/03: ASI: PIOMAS June 2014
- 2014/06/03: RScribbler: Arctic Sea Ice Loss Goes Vertical: Area the Size of Nevada Gone in One Day
- 2014/06/03: ArcticNews: Arctic sea ice in steep decline
- 2014/06/03: CChallenge: Effects of Global Warming Thinning Sea Ice on Polar Bears, Other Animals of Arctic
- 2014/06/03: Dosbat: Do Not Press This Button!
As for the charismatic megafauna:
- 2014/06/08: BBC: Polar bear ‘makes’ her own Arctic video
- 2014/06/06: USGS: Through the Eyes of a Polar Bear
While in Antarctica:
- 2014/06/05: TheConversation: What is the paradox of increasing Antarctic sea ice really telling us?
- 2014/06/02: ATTPh: West Antarctic Ice Sheet
- 2014/06/02: P3: Meltwater Pulse 1A
- 2014/05/13: AAGlaciers: Is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsing?
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2014/06/07: TP:JR: Three Ways Climate Change Is Going To Ruin Your Beer
- 2014/06/05: ConvEcon: Is the World Already Growing Sufficient Food?
- 2014/06/05: Asia Times: Grain smugglers grab Khyber profits
- 2014/06/03: UDW: From Mexico to Brazil, climate change threatens coffee growers in Latin America
- 2014/06/03: UN: Insecurity, funding shortfall leaves millions hungry in DR Congo – UN
- 2014/06/03: TreeHugger: Trouble is brewing for the coffee industry
- 2014/06/03: FAO: Somalia: Late, erratic rainfall raises concerns about harvest prospects and food security
  FAO calls for urgent action to scale up support amid already dire situation affecting large numbers of people
- 2014/06/02: TruthDig: Europe Faces Cereals Crop Crash
- 2014/06/02: UN: Late rains give rise to concerns about harvest prospects, food security in Somalia – UN
- 2014/06/01: BBC: UK government ‘in denial’ over food bank use, says Holyrood committee
The state of the world’s fisheries is a concern. See also, and:
- 2014/06/06: Grist: 6 ways climate change is screwing with your seafood (and what to do about it)
Food Prices are still problematic:
- FAO: World Food Situation – Food Price Indices
- 2014/06/05: UN: Global food prices down for second straight month in May, UN agency reports
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2014/06/07: CCurrents: With Friends In High Places, The GMO Biotech Sector Is Kicking Open The Door To Europe
- 2014/06/06: ABC(Au): Cross country support for GM wheat
  Sixteen farming organisations from Canada, America and Australia have signed a plan in support of genetically modified wheat. While there are GM wheat trials taking place in Australia, it’s yet to be commercialised anywhere in the world.
- 2014/06/05: Grist: The next front in the GMO war: Synthetic biology
- 2014/06/05: ABC(Au): Submission calls for GMO tolerance in organic
  The West Australian Department of Agriculture and Food has called on the organics industry to allow for tolerance of genetically modified organisms (GMO) within its guidelines.
- 2014/06/03: SciAm:FM: Michael Pollan and Raj Patel invite me to their class to discuss “GMOs”
And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?
- 2014/06/06: Resilience: Our future farmers: Ragman’s Farm
- 2014/06/06: UN: UN agency spotlights ‘climate-smart’ approach to galvanize rural renewal
- 2014/06/06: FAO: Farmers’ battle to cope with climate change could spark rural renewal
  FAO publication highlights success stories in “climate-smart agriculture,” stresses need to transition to new approach to food production
- 2014/06/06: ABC(Au): Planting the seed in kids on feeding the world in 2050
  How will we feed the world in 2050 and what sustainable farming practices will drive that endeavour? These are just two of the big questions that over a hundred kids and a hairy gardener grappled with under the shadow of the Parkes dish in central New South Wales.
- 2014/06/05: Resilience: Urban Agriculture in Rust Belt Cities
- 2014/06/05: CSM: Could Milan Protocol lead the world to food sustainability?
- 2014/06/05: Yale360: How Weeds Could Help Feed Billions in a Warming World
  Scientists in the U.S. and elsewhere are conducting intensive experiments to cross hardy weeds with food crops such as rice and wheat. Their goal is to make these staples more resilient as higher temperatures, drought, and elevated CO2 levels pose new threats to the world’s food supply.
- 2014/06/05: Eureka: Smart application of surfactants gives sustainable agriculture
- 2014/06/04: Eureka: Crop science booms in ‘The Triangle’ and strives to address population growth
- 2014/06/03: CSM: 12 ‘agrihoods’ aim to make farm-to-table living mainstream
- 2014/05/27: UDelaware: Blunting rice disease — UD researchers aim to disarm a ‘cereal killer’
2E became Boris in the Eastern Pacific and then merged with 90L in the Caribbean:
- 2014/06/07: NASA: NASA and NOAA Satellites Eyeing Mexico’s Tropical Soaker [90L] for Development
- 2014/06/06: Wunderground: 90L in Gulf of Mexico Bringing Heavy Rains to Mexico
- 2014/06/05: Wunderground: Invest 90L in Gulf of Mexico a Heavy Rain Threat for Mexico
- 2014/06/05: Eureka: NASA sees remnants of Tropical Storm Boris merging with Gulf low
- 2014/06/04: Eureka: NASA sees Depression Boris moving over Mexico with heavy rainfall
- 2014/06/04: Wunderground: Boris [2E] Hits Mexico; Atlantic’s First Invest of 2014 Forms in Gulf of Mexico
- 2014/06/04: BBerg: Tropical Storm Boris Forms Off Mexico’s Pacific Coast
- 2014/06/03: NASA: NASA Infrared Imagery Sees Heavy Rain Potential in Tropical Depression 2E
- 2014/06/03: Wunderground: TD-2E a Dangerous Rainfall Threat for Mexico and Guatemala
- 2014/06/02: Eureka: NASA’s TRMM satellite sees Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone [93E] forming
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
2014/06/04: IOTD: Taking the Temperature of the Hurricane Pool
2014/06/03: KSJT: Extraordinary claim of the week: Hurricanes with girly-girl names less respected and therefore, more deadly
2014/06/03: ABC(Au): A curious twist in hurricane research
2014/06/03: Grist: Americans underestimate storms with women’s names, die in droves
2014/06/02: DOE:TiE: NOAA predicts relatively quiet Atlantic hurricane season
2014/06/02: Wunderground: The 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season Begins
2014/06/02: QuarkSoup: Map of Tropical Cyclones
2014/06/02: WSWS: Six months after Typhoon Haiyan — Woman and six children killed in fire in tent city in Philippines

As for the Monsoon:
- 2014/06/06: IndiaTimes: Floods displace over 100,000 in Sri Lanka
- 2014/06/05: al Jazeera: Sri Lanka hit by deadly floods
  The start of the monsoon season has been marked by exceptionally heavy rain across the Indian Ocean nation.
- 2014/06/05: RScribbler: Monsoon At Dead Halt: Chances For Summer El Nino Increase to 70% as India Swelters
- 2014/06/03: Slate: The 2014 India Monsoon Season: The Most Important Forecast in the World
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Monsoon-triggered mudslides kill at least 13 in Sri Lanka
This week in notable weather:
- 2014/06/05: IOTD: Winter Fog Becoming Rare in California
- 2014/06/04: RT: Nebraska storm: Here’s what happens when baseball-sized hail strikes (photos, video)
- 2014/06/03: CBC: Thunderstorms, gusty winds hit southern Quebec
  Almost 30,000 homes and businesses in Quebec lost power during the season’s 1st storm
- 2014/06/02: al Jazeera: Lightning kills 13 people in eastern India
  Severe storms have blasted northern parts of the country over the past few days.
As for GHGs:
- 2014/06/07: GLaden: US CO2 Output Up, and how to lie with graphs
- 2014/06/05: BBC: China’s experts divided over carbon emissions peak
  China’s senior climate negotiator says his scientists are divided over when their carbon emissions will peak. Reports earlier this week suggested that China would introduce an overall emissions cap by 2020. Speaking on the fringes of UN climate talks in Bonn, Xie Zhenhua said that his country was determined to peak “as soon as possible”. But he said the experts weren’t united and it wasn’t possible to give a firm date at this point.
- 2014/06/06: RNE: Major greenhouse threat from new CFCs found in air
- 2014/06/04: EurActiv: EU emissions ‘lowest on record’
- 2014/06/04: RTCC: Scientists discover three new global warming gases [2 CFCs & 1 HCFC]
Regarding the solar hypothesis:
- 2014/06/04: Eureka: Has solar activity influence on the Earth’s global warming?
- 2014/06/03: Eureka: Discovering a hidden source of solar surges
- 2014/06/03: Eureka: Solving sunspot mysteries
- 2014/06/03: CSM: What’s going on with the sun? Scientists puzzled by oddities in sunspot cycle.
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2014/06/04: al Jazeera: Dust storms – a modern plague on Iran
  Monday’s severe weather in Tehran is becoming a more frequent occurrence across much of the country.
- 2014/06/03: BBC: Freak sandstorm hits Iranian capital
- 2014/06/02: CBC: Tehran sandstorm kills at least 4, injures 30
  Winds with speeds of up to 110 km/h caused chain-reaction vehicle crash
- 2014/06/01: MODIS: Dust storm off Libya [on May 26]
What’s up with volcanoes this week?
- 2014/06/07: MODIS: Eruption of Sangeang Api, Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia (morning overpass) [on May 31]
- 2014/06/06: MODIS: Ash plume from Ubinas Volcano, Peru [on May 30]
- 2014/06/03: CSM: Pavlof eruption: How big is it?
  Alaska’s Pavlof volcano turned up the volume on its new eruption yesterday (June 2), sending up a billowy ash plume that could threaten local flights, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO).
- 2014/06/03: IOTD: Sangeang Api Erupts [on May 31]
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Indonesia volcanic ash cloud drifts towards Bali, causes more flight cancellations
Regarding ozone:
- 2014/06/08: IOTD: Arctic Ozone in Spring [on April 1]
And on the ENSO front:
- 2014/06/07: Wunderground: El NiÃ±o Odds Raised to 70% by NOAA, But El NiÃ±o is Actually Imminent by Michael Ventrice
- 2014/06/05: NOAA:NCEP: El NiÃ±o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
  Synopsis: The chance of El NiÃ±o is 70% during the Northern Hemisphere summer and reaches 80% during the fall and winter.
- 2014/06/04: RScribbler: Winds Interrupted — El Nino is Tearing a Hole Through the Trades
- 2014/06/02: RScribbler: May Likely to Break Global High Temperature Record as El Nino Conditions Strengthen in Pacific
- 2014/06/02: CC&G: Nino 3.4 Anomaly Continues to Increase
As for the temperature record:
- 2014/06/07: GLaden: Global Warming Hiatus?
- 2014/06/05: QuarkSoup: How Often is a Temperture Trend Significant?
- 2014/06/05: JCBaez: Warming Slowdown? (Part 2) by Jan Galkowski
- 2014/05/29: JCBaez: Warming Slowdown? (Part 1) by Jan Galkowski
- 2014/06/05: Grist:American Southwest heating faster than rest of nation
- 2014/06/05: KSJT: The AP calculates the fastest-warming places in the U.S.
- 2014/06/05: ABC(Au): No snow to start season after unusually mild May
- 2014/06/02: DD: Australia experiences its hottest two years on record…
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Warmer shades of autumn in Tasmania
What’s new in proxies?
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2014/06/05: Eureka: What a 66-million-year-old forest fire reveals about the last days of the dinosaurs
- 2014/06/02: Eureka: Solving the puzzle of ice age climates
- 2014/06/02: Eureka: New species from the past — Baltic amber deposits reveal a new species of flat bug from the genus Aradus
What’s the State of the Oceans?
- 2014/06/06: DD: Sick sea lions flood shelters in California – Pups wash ashore all along the coast amid what scientists say are strains on the ocean
- 2014/06/05: DD: Sea star disease epidemic surges in Oregon, now present on entire U.S. West Coast, local extinctions expected…
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): New giant clam species discovered ‘by accident’
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): 10 facts about our amazing oceans
- 2014/06/04: Eureka: How red tide knocks out its competition
- 2014/06/03: CCP: Brown pelican – widespread breeding failure
- 2014/06/02: EneNews: AP: Drastic plunge in baby California pelicans — Zero born in multiple study areas…
And the State of the Biosphere?
- 2014/06/06: TP:JR: Amid California’s Drought, Raptors Are Having One Of The Worst Breeding Seasons On Record
- 2014/06/06: Xinhuanet: New species discovered in the Greater Mekong region [pix]
- 2014/06/06: CBC: Rescued baby moose thriving, wildlife centre says — Days-old calf was found near dead mother late last month
  The baby moose rescued after its mother was found dead by the highway is thriving at a Saskatchewan wildlife rehabilitation facility. Jan Mitchell of Moosomin was driving to Whitewood on May 28 when she discovered the recently killed adult female moose on the side of Highway 1. Her calf was hiding nearby.
- 2014/06/05: WWF: Flying Squirrel, Rainbow Lizard Among 367 New Species Discovered in the Greater Mekong
- 2014/06/05: CBC: Burma’s new species showcased by World Wildlife Fund
  New report Mysterious Mekong highlights 367 new species in Southeast Asia
- 2014/06/04: BBC: Koalas hug trees to lose heat
- 2014/06/01: al Jazeera: New discovery amid UAE’s dying ecosystem
  As urbanisation consumes wildlife habitats in the UAE, one scientist has rediscovered a dragonfly thought to be extinct.
And on the extinction watch:
- 2014/06/06: SciAm:EC: 3 New Species of Weird, Endangered Fish Discovered in India, U.S and Colombia
- 2014/06/03: SciNews: Humans Blamed for Loss of Mammoths and Other Giants
- 2014/06/03: SciAm:EC: Big-Eared Bat, Once Feared Extinct, Rediscovered after 120 Years
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): Study finds 10% of Australian native mammal species extinct since European settlement
- 2014/05/28: AarhusU: Climate not to blame for the disappearance of large mammals
  A new study unequivocally points to humans as the cause of the mass extinction of large animals all over the world during the course of the last 100,000 years.
The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant concern. And then, there are the Neonicotinoids:
- 2014/06/04: CBC: Toronto Fairmont Royal York home to new ‘bee hotel’ — Essential pollinators can find a rooftop oasis amid the urban jungle
- 2014/06/04: BBC: Tree bumblebee: ‘Record sightings’ for invasive bee
  Sightings of an invasive bee species in Britain have reached a record high, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust says. Tree bumblebees first arrived from continental Europe about 13 years ago, but they have now been seen throughout England, Wales and southern Scotland. Scientists say it is not yet clear whether their spread is a bonus for the UK’s native bumblebees or whether they pose a threat.
- 2014/06/03: BBC: Honeybees use mental maps to find their way home in a similar way to birds and mammals, researchers say
- 2014/06/02: NatureN: Bees build mental maps to get home — Study suggests the insects do not rely solely on the Sun as a compass
- 2014/06/02: SciNews: Drugged Bees Still Find Their Way Home
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Tasmanian beekeepers vote on ‘biosecurity levy’
  […]
  
  Australian Honey Bee Industry Council [AHBIC] chairman, South Australian beekeeper Ian Zadow, is doing the rounds outlining why apiarists, including him, are being asked to pay twice the current tax. “Around Australia, support for endemic disease control is backing off from Governments”, he said. “Where I am in South Australia, they’ve completely walked from endemic disease control, unless industry funds it.
How are the Insect Orders doing?
- 2014/06/06: Grist: Blame industrial ag for those monarch butterfly declines
- 2014/06/04: CBC: Monarch butterfly decline linked to spread of GM crops
  Milkweed essential to monarchs in decline because of herbicides used with genetically modified crops
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2014/06/07: WpgFP: Turning up the heat: Manitoba caught in climate change crosshairs
- 2014/06/06: CSW: New EPA Climate Change Indicators report shows impacts on U.S.
- 2014/06/05: PI:B: Climate change may be closer than you think
- 2014/06/05: Eureka: Termites, fungi and climate change
- 2014/06/04: ERW: Carbon-dioxide boost to grassland growth depends on seasonal rainfall
And then there are the world’s forests:
- 2014/06/06: Eureka: Saving trees in tropics could cut emissions by one-fifth, study shows
- 2014/06/06: BBC: UN urges action to protect forests’ genetic diversity
  Forest species are coming under increasing pressure from human activities and climate change, and face the risk of extinction, the UN warns. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has published a global action plan to improve management of the world’s forest genetic resources.
- 2014/06/05: Eureka: For forests, an earlier spring than ever
  Study finds climate change leads to increased growing season and allows forests to store more CO2
- 2014/06/04: UCSUSA: Report Finds Successful Efforts to Reduce Deforestation
- 2014/06/04: DD: Ecuador signs permits for oil drilling in Amazon’s YasunÃ national park – Companies could start extracting oil underneath key biodiversity reserve by 2016
- 2014/06/03: Eureka: Environmental ‘one-two punch’ imperils Amazonian forests
- 2014/06/03: UN: Urgent action needed to safeguard genetic diversity of world’s forests, UN study says
- 2014/06/02: MBL: A New Look at Old Forests: Study Revises Theory on Growth and Carbon Storage in Mature Trees
Climate refugees are becoming an issue:
- 2014/06/06: UN: At least 62 dead in deadliest boat tragedy in Red Sea this year – UN refugee agency
- 2014/06/03: EUO: 40,000 boat migrants reached Italy this year
- 2014/06/03: RTCC: Immigration laws must cater for climate refugees
  New Zealand’s rejection of Kiribati man shows current system doesn’t work for those fleeing climate change impacts
Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:
Aerosols affect the climate, but they also affect people’s health:
- 2014/06/05: BBC: Pollution link to irregular heartbeat and lung clotting
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2014/06/08: MODIS: Black River Tank Fire, Arizona [on June 1]
- 2014/06/05: MODIS: Fires in Central Africa [on May 27]
- 2014/06/04: FS:PSRS: State of wildland fire emissions, carbon, and climate research
- 2014/06/03: MODIS: Fires in Central Africa [on May 24]
- 2014/06/02: TP:JR: ‘Climate Change Is Here’: Australia Experiences Hottest Two Years Ever Recorded
- 2014/06/01: al Jazeera: The temperatures are big in Japan
  A deadly heatwave sweeps across Japan and hospitalises hundreds.
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean’s health:
- 2014/06/03: UGeorgia: UGA ecologists provide close-up of coral bleaching event — Study documents corals before, during and after October 2009 episode
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2014/06/04: CCurrents: Ocean Acidification Rate May Be Ten Times Faster Than Ancient Time
- 2014/06/02: Columbia:LDEO: Modern Ocean Acidification Is Outpacing Ancient Upheaval, Study Suggests — Rate May Be Ten Times Faster, According to New Data
Glaciers are melting:
- 2014/06/02: FaGP: Sacagawea Glacier, Wyoming is Disappearing
Sea levels are rising:
- 2014/06/07: ABC(Au): Climate change disturbing Pacific war graves, warns Marshall Islands minister
- 2014/06/07: BBC: Climate change helps seas disturb Japanese war dead
  Rising sea levels have disturbed the skeletons of soldiers killed on the Marshall Islands during World War Two.
- 2014/06/06: CSM: Jamestown: Could rising seas reclaim America’s history?
- 2014/06/06: Xinhuanet: Kenyan coastal islands threatened by sea level rise
  Millions of inhabitants along the Kenyan coastal strip might relocate elsewhere as climate change-induced sea level rise threatens to submerge islands, government officials warned on Thursday on the World Environment Day.
- 2014/06/05: PLNA: Cuba: Sea Level Rose Ten Centimeters Over Last 50 Years
- 2014/06/04: GLaden: How fast can sea level go up with Polar Ice Cap melt?
- 2014/06/02: DD: In Norfolk, evidence of global warming is in the streets at high tide…
- 2014/06/02: Tamino: The Foolish Line
- 2014/06/01: QuarkSoup: Mayor Can’t Think About Moving His Whole City Due to Rising Sea
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2014/06/07: BBC: Afghanistan flash flood kills dozens in Baghlan province
  Flash flooding in the remote northern Afghan province of Baghlan has killed at least 73 people and forced thousands to abandon their homes, police say.
- 2014/06/07: IndiaTimes: Afghanistan flash floods kill around 60
- 2014/06/07: al Jazeera: Scores killed in northern Afghanistan floods
  Women and children among more than 50 dead, as provincial officials in Baghlan says number of deaths could pass 100.
- 2014/06/06: al Jazeera: Paraguay floods continue — Thousands continue to struggle with aftermath of heavy rains and overflowing rivers
- 2014/06/06: Xinhuanet: China reports 27 deaths in southern rainstorms
- 2014/06/03: UN: Thousands of homes destroyed as more floods strike northern Afghanistan – UN
- 2014/06/03: Xinhuanet: Heavy rainstorms hit Sichuan [pix]
- 2014/06/02: PSinclair: World Cup Runneth Under. Way Under.
- 2014/06/01: JFleck: Monthly weather report, May 2014
- 2014/05/31: RT: Hundreds evacuated as heavy floods sweep across Russia’s Siberia (photos)
First, stop putting GHGs into the atmosphere,

Second, begin to reduce current levels of GHGs,

Third, save as many species as possible,

Fourth, begin to reduce the human population,

And elsewhere on the mitigation front:
- 2014/06/08: CCR: Carbon budgets, climate sensitivity and the myth of “burnable carbon”
- 2014/06/07: Grist:Here’s a new way to keep cattle burps from toasting the planet
- 2014/06/06: Grist: The five ways to stop climate change. Oh, wait, make that one way
- 2014/06/03: CCurrents: Reducing Emissions Will Be Primary Way To Fight Climate Change, Finds Study
- 2014/06/03: RNE: Should we paint the town white? Cool roads could cool our cities
- 2014/06/03: CPunch: The Denialism Epidemic — Complacency and the Kiss of Death
- 2014/06/02: CCurrents: Strategizing Climate Change
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2014/06/03: PI: [link to 822k pdf] Who’s ready to fight traffic with transit?
- 2014/06/07: PeakEnergy: Natural Gas Rolls Into World of Freight Rail
- 2014/06/06: BBC: Record numbers let the train take the strain
  Once again the number of people taking the train across the UK has hit record levels. In total, there were 1.59 bn passenger journeys in 2013-14. That is about 90 million more than the previous year, according to figures this week from the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).
- 2014/06/04: BBerg: Ship Operators Propose Drones to Hunt Sulfur Scofflaws
  The world’s biggest shipping companies will call on authorities to deploy drones in enforcing new pollution controls that may tempt competitors to use cheaper, dirtier fuel and undercut prices. With new International Maritime Organization limits on sulfur emission set to cost the industry as much as $50 billion a year, A.P. Moeller Maersk A/S (MAERSKB)’s Maersk Line and about 10 other shipping companies later this month will form the Trident Alliance to fight for “robust enforcement” of the rules, which may include drones with emission sensors, according to Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistic AS, a member of the coalition.
- 2014/06/03: CalcRisk: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales increase to 16.7 million annual rate in May, Highest Rate since 2007
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2014/06/07: Hypergeometric: Mass Energy Alliance/New England Wind
- 2014/06/07: SimpleC: Can changing how we build simply dismantle CO2 emissions?
- 2014/06/05: CleanTechnica: This Could Be Vancouver Island’s First Passive House
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2014/06/06: Xinhuanet: Finnish researchers develop new technology for CO2 recovery
  […]
  
  Current techniques for isolating carbon dioxide from exhaust gas usually use hazardous chemicals, which may harm both the environment and human health. The new method invented by Finnish researchers isolates carbon dioxide by percolating it through clean water, said the report. Teijo Linnanen, the team leader told YLE that they dissolve the flue gas emissions in water and use low pressure to separate the carbon dioxide from the liquid as a gas.
- 2014/06/06: BBerg: Texas Cash-From-Carbon Program Lures Climate Skeptics
- 2014/06/03: GEP: Alternating Fortunes for CCS
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2014/06/01: ESAJ:FE&E: An interdisciplinary assessment of climate engineering strategies by Daniela F Cusack et al.
- 2014/03/05: ACS:ES&T: (ab$) Carbon Dioxide Efficiency of Terrestrial Enhanced Weathering by Nils Moosdorf et al.
- 2014/06/07: DeSmogBlog: Study Dismisses Geoengineering Quick Fix For Global Warming
- 2014/06/06: USNews: Technology to the Planet’s Rescue?
  It’s time to explore whether geoengineering can reverse Antarctic ice loss.
- 2014/06/05: Decarboni(Se): What is (..and what isn’t..) Geoengineering??
- 2014/06/05: IOMToday: Exxon – breaking and remaking the climate?
- 2014/06/03: Eureka: Climate engineering can’t erase climate change
- 2014/06/02: SCPR: Geoengineering isn’t going to save the planet, says UCLA researcher
What’s new in conservation?
- 2014/06/04: CDreams: The Challenge of Sustaining Our Oceans [Suzuki]
- 2014/06/03: NatureN: Ship speed limits can save right whales
  Environmental groups sue to force US government to expand conservation efforts in North Atlantic.
- 2014/06/02: BBC: Row over protection for World Cup mascot armadillo
  Conservationists in Brazil are challenging football’s governing body Fifa to do more to protect the animal that inspired this summer’s World Cup mascot. The Brazilian three-banded armadillo is listed as a vulnerable species and is the basis of the Fuleco mascot that will feature on official merchandise and souvenirs.
- 2014/06/01: TheConversation: Pilbara shows how to save the most species per dollar
While on the adaptation front:
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): Researchers explore cost effective way of drought-proofing
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Cities need adapt to deadly heatwaves
  Australian cities need to prepare for more frequent, intense and longer-lasting heatwaves and their potentially deadly impact.
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2014/06/03: GMD: Earth Orbit v2.1: a 3-D visualization and analysis model of Earth’s orbit, Milankovitch cycles and insolation by T. S. Kostadinov & R. Gilb
- 2014/06/03: GMDD: Sensitivity of simulated CO2 concentration to regridding of global fossil fuel CO2 emissions by X. Zhang et al.
- 2014/06/03: HESS: Improving the complementary methods to estimate evapotranspiration under diverse climatic and physical conditions by F. M. Anayah & J. J. Kaluarachchi
- 2014/06/03: HESS: Climate change impacts on the hydrologic regime of a Canadian river: comparing uncertainties arising from climate natural variability and lumped hydrological model structures by G. Seiller & F. Anctil
- 2014/06/03: HESSD: Climate change and stream temperature projections in the Columbia River Basin: biological implications of spatial variation in hydrologic drivers by D. L. Ficklin et al.
- 2014/06/02: HESSD: Model study of the impacts of future climate change on the hydrology of Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) basin by M. Masood et al.
- 2014/06/02: OS: Fine-scale features on the sea surface in SAR satellite imagery – Part 2: Numerical modeling by S. Matt et al.
- 2014/06/03: TC: Physical controls on the storage of methane in landfast sea ice by J. Zhou et al.
- 2014/06/03: TCD: The GAMDAM Glacier Inventory: a quality controlled inventory of Asian glaciers by T. Nuimura et al.
- 2014/06/02: TCD: Blowing snow at D17, AdÃ©lie Land, Antarctica: atmospheric moisture issues by H. Barral et al.
- 2014/06/03: AGWObserver: New research – May 2014
- 2014/06/03: PNAS: (ab$) Spatially robust estimates of biological nitrogen (N) fixation imply substantial human alteration of the tropical N cycle by Benjamin W. Sullivan et al.
- 2014/06/03: PNAS: (ab$) Fossil palm beetles refine upland winter temperatures in the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum by S. Bruce Archibald et al.
- 2014/06/03: PNAS: (ab$) Effects of differential habitat warming on complex communities by Tyler D. Tunney et al.
- 2014/06/03: PNAS: (ab$) Accumulation and enhanced cycling of polyphosphate by Sargasso Sea plankton in response to low phosphorus by Patrick Martin et al.
- 2014/06/03: PNAS: (ab$) Effect of the Spanish Conquest on coastal change in Northwestern Peru by Daniel F. Belknap & Daniel H. Sandweiss
- 2014/06/03: PNAS: (abs) Climate change and forest fires synergistically drive widespread melt events of the Greenland Ice Sheet by Kaitlin M. Keegan et al.
- 2014/06/03: PNAS: (ab$) Tropospheric winds from northeastern China carry the etiologic agent of Kawasaki disease from its source to Japan by Xavier RodÃ³ et al.
- 2014/05/08: T&F: How Grammatical Choice Shapes Media Representations of Climate (Un)certainty by Adriana Bailey et al.
- 2014/06/04: RSPB: Global late Quaternary megafauna extinctions linked to humans, not climate change by Christopher Sandom et al.
- 2014/06/05: ACP: Uncertainties in future climate predictions due to convection parameterisations by H. Rybka & H. Tost
- 2014/06/04: ACP: Contrasting the direct radiative effect and direct radiative forcing of aerosols by C. L. Heald et al.
- 2014/06/02: ACP: On the detection of the solar signal in the tropical stratosphere by G. Chiodo et al.
- 2014/06/05: ACPD: Arctic low-level boundary layer clouds: in-situ measurements and simulations of mono- and bimodal supercooled droplet size distributions at the cloud top layer by M. Klingebiel et al.
- 2014/06/04: ACPD: Development of a 10 year (2001-2010) 0.1Â° dataset of land-surface energy balance for mainland China by X. Chen et al.
- 2014/06/02: ESD: The sensitivity of carbon turnover in the Community Land Model to modified assumptions about soil processes by B. Foereid et al.
- 2014/06/01: ESAJ:FE&E: An interdisciplinary assessment of climate engineering strategies by Daniela F Cusack et al.
- 2014/06/01: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Indonesian vegetation response to changes in rainfall seasonality over the past 25,000 years by Nathalie Dubois et al.
- 2014/06/01: Nature:CC: (ab$) Climate fails to predict wood decomposition at regional scales by Mark A. Bradford et al.
- 2014/06/01: Nature:CC: (ab$) Heavier summer downpours with climate change revealed by weather forecast resolution model by Elizabeth J. Kendon et al.
- 2014/06/01: Nature:CC: (ab$) Consistent increase in High Asia’s runoff due to increasing glacier melt and precipitation by A. F. Lutz et al.
- 2014/06/01: Nature:CC: (ab$) Net carbon uptake has increased through warming-induced changes in temperate forest phenology by Trevor F. Keenan et al.
- 2014/03/05: ACS:ES&T: (ab$) Carbon Dioxide Efficiency of Terrestrial Enhanced Weathering by Nils Moosdorf et al.
- 2014/06/06: BG: Can current moisture responses predict soil CO2 efflux under altered precipitation regimes? A synthesis of manipulation experiments by S. Vicca et al.
- 2014/06/05: BG: Pumping methane out of aquatic sediments – ebullition forcing mechanisms in an impounded river by A. Maeck et al.
- 2014/06/04: BG: Extreme events in gross primary production: a characterization across continents by J. Zscheischler et al.
- 2014/06/05: BGD: N2O, NO, N2, and CO2 emissions from tropical savanna and grassland of Northern Australia: an incubation experiment with intact soil cores by C. Werner et al.
- 2014/06/04: BGD: Wind driven changes in the ocean carbon sink by N. C. Swart et al.
- 2014/06/03: BGD: A model of the methane cycle, permafrost, and hydrology of the Siberian continental margin by D. Archer
- 2014/06/04: CP: Temperature and precipitation signal in two Alpine ice cores over the period 1961-2001 by I. Mariani et al.
- 2014/06/06: CPD: Laminated sediments in the Bering Sea reveal atmospheric teleconnections to Greenland climate on millennial to decadal timescales during the last deglaciation by H. Kuehn et al.
- 2014/06/06: ESDD: Global hydrological droughts in the 21st century under a changing hydrological regime by N. Wanders et al.
- 2014/06/06: ACP: Linear trends in cloud top height from passive observations in the oxygen A-band by L. Lelli et al.
- 2014/06/06: ACP: Surface-sensible and latent heat fluxes over the Tibetan Plateau from ground measurements, reanalysis, and satellite data by Q. Shi & S. Liang
- 2014/06/06: ACPD: Measurements of OH and RO2 radicals at Dome C, East Antarctica by A. Kukui et al.
- 2014/06/06: ACPD: Development towards a global operational aerosol consensus: basic climatological characteristics of the International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction Multi-Model Ensemble (ICAP-MME) by W. R. Sessions et al.
- 2014/06/05: ACPD: Detailed source term estimation of the atmospheric release for the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident by coupling simulations of atmospheric dispersion model with improved deposition scheme and oceanic dispersion model by G. Katata et al.
- 2014/06/05: ACPD: Atmospheric black carbon and warming effects influenced by the source and absorption enhancement in Central Europe by S. Nordmann et al.
- 2014/06/04: HESS: Statistical prediction of terrestrial water storage changes in the Amazon Basin using tropical Pacific and North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies by C. de Linage et al.
- 2014/06/06: HESSD: Using C14 and H3 to understand groundwater flow and recharge in an aquifer window by A. P. Atkinson et al.
- 2014/06/05: OS: Ventilation of the Mediterranean Sea constrained by multiple transient tracer measurements by T. StÃ¶ven & T. Tanhua
- 2014/06/06: TCD: Brief Communication: Trends in sea ice extent north of Svalbard and its impact on cold air outbreaks as observed in spring 2013 by A. Tetzlaff et al.
- 2014/06/06: TCD: Arctic sea ice melt onset from passive microwave satellite data: 1979-2012 by A. C. Bliss & M. R. Anderson
- 2014/06/05: TCD: Simultaneous solution for mass trends on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by N. SchÃ¶n et al.
- 2014/06/05: TCD: Seasonal cycle of solar energy fluxes through Arctic sea ice by S. Arndt & M. Nicolaus
- 2014/06/05: TCD: Processes governing the mass balance of Chhota Shigri Glacier (Western Himalaya, India) assessed by point-scale surface energy balance measurements by M. F. Azam et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2014/06/05: Tyee: [link to pdf] Canada’s 500,000 Leaky Energy Wells: ‘Threat to Public’
  Badly sealed oil and gas wellbores leak emissions barely monitored, experts find.
- 2014/06/02: EPA: [several pdfs] Carbon Pollution Standards – Clean Power Plan Proposed Rule
- 2014/06/01: ClimateCouncil(Au): [link to 914k pdf] Seasonal Update: Abnormal Autumn
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2014/06/05: JEB: PMIP3 #2 – Past to Future
- 2014/06/04: V V: Paper describing benchmarking concepts in OA review
In the science organizations:
- 2014/06/06: NatureN: New Science Europe head questions centralized approach to research
  Miguel Seabra talks open access, austerity and striking a balance between coordination and homogenization.
- 2014/06/04: NatureN: Federal boost for German science — Agreement on changes to constitution pave way for university funding shake-up
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Need a ‘whole of government’ approach to science
  Professor Ian Chubb, the Chief Scientist, discusses cuts to funding of science and research and says with science impinging on fourteen government portfolios there is a need for a plan for the future which prioritises investments.
What’s new in models?
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?
- 2014/05/21: T&F:Prometheus: Publisher, be damned! From price gouging to the open road by David Harvie et al.
- 2014/06/05: TimesHE: Resignations threat over Taylor & Francis ‘censorship’
  Editorial board of journal could quit after debate on publishing suffers delay A journal’s editorial board has been left on the brink of resignation after an eight-month standoff with its publisher Taylor & Francis over the publication of a debate on academic publishing and the profits made by major firms. The debate, in the journal Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation, was due to appear last September, but was delayed by Taylor & Francis and published only at the end of last month. Its “proposition” paper, “Publisher, be damned! from price gouging to the open road”, by four academics from the University of Leicester’s School of Management, criticises the large profits made by commercial publishers on the back of academics’ labours, and the failure of the Finch report on open access to address them.
- 2014/06/04: SciNews: Output Drops at World’s Largest Open-Access Journal [PLoS One]
The Pielke fan clubbe, alas:
- 2014/06/07: ERabett: Thanks!
- 2014/06/06: ERabett: Eli Outsources
- 2014/06/05: NYT:PK: Energy Choices
Meanwhile at the UN:
- 2014/06/08: UN: ‘One planet, one ocean – together, we must protect them’, urges UN on World Oceans Day
- 2014/06/07: WMO: World Environment Day
- 2014/06/06: WMO: World Oceans Day
- 2014/06/05: UN: Partnerships, cooperation focus of UN sustainable energy summit
- 2014/06/05: UN: ‘Raise your voice, not the sea level,’ urges UN on World Environment Day
- 2014/06/05: UN: ‘The future starts now,’ Ban says at launch of UN Decade of Sustainable Energy for All
- 2014/06/04: UN: UN seeks to strengthen disaster readiness with launch of ‘Tacloban Declaration’
- 2014/06/04: UN: First annual UN forum seeks to mobilize investment, action for sustainable energy for all
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2014/06/06: TP:JR: The Northeast’s Cap-And-Trade System Just Had Its Most Successful Auction Ever
- 2014/06/05: TP:JR: How Some States Are Making Carbon Pollution Cuts Really Easy
- 2014/06/05: RTCC: China set to launch Chongqing emissions trading scheme
On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:
- 2014/06/08: IndiaTimes: Iran, US announce surprise nuclear talks
- 2014/06/07: flc: ‘Officials close to the negotiations tell us that they expect an agreement with Iran will only be reached, at the very last moment
- 2014/06/07: BBC: Iran nuclear talks: US and Iran to hold Geneva meeting
  Senior US and Iranian officials are to meet in Geneva on Monday for two days of talks ahead of the next round of negotiations between six world powers and Tehran on its nuclear programme.
- 2014/06/06: TruthOut: Leading Alarmist on Iran Ignored What He Knew Was True
- 2014/06/03: AntiWar: Iran’s Civilian Enrichment Remains a Sticking Point in Talks — West Dubs Self-Sufficiency in Fuel ‘Unrealistic’
South [& East] China Sea tension persists, as the empire leans on China:
- 2014/06/07: Xinhuanet: China Voice: The Hague has no jurisdiction over sea dispute
  China’s repeated rejection of Manila’ s plea for arbitration in the dispute in the South China Sea is by no means defiance of the tribunal in The Hague. On the contrary, it shows China’s respect for international law. The Permanent Court of Arbitration this week asked China to submit evidence on its territorial claims in the South China Sea within six months for a procedural review of the suit filed by the Philippines. The tribunal, set up under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), has no jurisdictional power over the territorial and maritime disputes in the region. Though a UNCLOS signatory, in 2006 China filed a formal declaration that invoked the opt-out clause of Article 298 of the convention. That, according to the rules of convention, entitled China to reject arbitration in disputes concerning boundaries, historic titles, or military activity.
- 2014/06/06: IndiaTimes: Japan says Chinese ships in disputed waters
- 2014/06/05: BBerg: Vietnam Says China Still Ramming Boats, Airs Sinking Video
- 2014/06/05: Asia Times: Beijing shrugs off ‘nine-dash’ demand
  An international tribunal has asked China to submit evidence defending its territorial claims in the South China Sea within six months, but Beijing shrugged off the request Wednesday, saying it does not recognize the case brought by rival claimant the Philippines.
- 2014/06/05: BBerg: G-7 Adds to Pressure on China With Criticism of Maritime Tension
- 2014/06/03: Asia Times: Reed Bank: South China Sea flashpoint
- 2014/06/03: Xinhuanet: Chinese general reiterates principle for solving island disputes
- 2014/06/03: WSWS: Washington boasts of military buildup against China
- 2014/06/02: Xinhuanet: Manila, Hanoi’s plots on South China Sea will never succeed
- 2014/06/02: IndiaTimes: US, Japan working in cahoots: China
- 2014/06/02: WSWS: US defense secretary menaces China at Singapore forum
Tensions continue as the empire leans on Syria, Ukraine, Russia…:
- 2014/06/06: CSM: Ukraine crisis creates new rifts in Europe as G7 shuns Russia
- 2014/06/05: RTCC: G7’s focus on energy security ‘at odds with’ climate goals
- 2014/06/04: BBerg: EU Is Omitting Climate in Energy Security Push: Prescott
  The European Union risks losing ground in the fight against climate change as it tries to shore up energy security in response to concerns about dependence on Russian gas, said John Prescott, the bloc’s lead negotiator for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The annexation of Crimea by Russia has pushed the issue of energy security to the top of the European political agenda as the 28-nation bloc devises plans to cut reliance on natural gas imports from Russia’s OAO Gazprom. That risks overshadowing the debate about cutting greenhouse gases, according to Prescott, former deputy prime minister of the U.K.
- 2014/06/04: al Jazeera: Obama and Putin spar over Ukraine violence
  US president says Russia acts like “bully” in Ukraine, prompting the Russian leader to accuse America of “hypocrisy”.
- 2014/06/04: CPunch: Imperial Stupidity — Marching on Moscow
- 2014/06/03: AntiWar: NATO Announces New East Europe Buildup Aimed at Russia — Russian Envoy Warns Escalation Would Violate 1997 Treaty
- 2014/06/03: RT: Gazprom ready to complete South Stream without international finance
- 2014/06/03: EUO: EU commission scales up rhetoric against Russian [South Stream] gas pipeline
- 2014/06/03: WSWS: Obama heads to Europe for week of meetings directed against Russia
- 2014/06/02: EurActiv: Oettinger: EU help in resolving South Stream’s legal problems is conditional [on Russia adhering to international law]
- 2014/06/02: al Jazeera: Ukraine and Russia in gas “crunch” talks
  Final talks on gas dispute set to start, with fuel supplies to Europe to start dwindling by Wednesday if unresolved.
- 2014/06/01: BBerg: Tusk Taps Tough-Talking Miner to Wean Poland From Russia Energy
  Polish Premier Donald Tusk’s drive to break the ex-communist nation’s links to Russia’s energy chain by modernizing the domestic coal industry…
- 2014/06/01: BBerg: Russia Gives Ukraine Extra Week to Pay for Gas
  Russia gave Ukraine an extra week to pay in advance for this month’s gas supplies or risk a shutdown, at the start of a week of international talks on the crisis in the former Soviet republic.
Further in the geopolitical shift:
- 2014/06/07: CCurrents: The Lies Grow More Audacious
- 2014/06/06: NikkeiAR: With G-8 fading, old order gives way to uncertainty
  While the leaders of the Group of Seven made a show of unity here in the face of troubles in Ukraine and Asian waters, their waning ability to check Russian and Chinese assertiveness was all too apparent.
- 2014/06/06: RT: Russia to extend Trans-Eurasian rail project to Korea
- 2014/06/06: CPunch: The Enemy Within — Beware of Kicking the Dragon and Bear!
- 2014/06/04: EurActiv: Energy revolution from East to West
- 2014/06/03: CPunch: The “Soft Power” Strategy — The Geopolitics of the Eurasian Economic Union
- 2014/06/03: RT: China and Russia to establish joint rating agency
  No more Fitch, Moody’s, or Standard & Poor’s for Russia and China, as they have agreed to establish a rating agency on joint projects, and later, international services, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Tuesday.
- 2014/06/02: EurActiv: Why Russia and China are united by more than pipeline politics
In the “global competition for natural resources”:
- 2014/05/31: EconBrowser: Commodity prices and resource scarcity
The solar spat between China and the USA is back on:
- 2014/06/04: RT: Solar wars: US penalizes China by doubling tariffs on panels
- 2014/06/04: PLNA: China Accuses US of Adopting Unfair Trade Measures
  China denounced the United States today for thwarting import of Chinese photovoltaic products, considering its actions to be an abuse of trade measures.
- 2014/06/04: TreeHugger: U.S. imposes tariffs of up to 35% on certain solar panels made in China
- 2014/06/04: Reuters: U.S. sets new import duties on Chinese solar products
- 2014/06/04: BBC: US seeks fresh China solar tariffs
  The US has proposed higher and more extensive tariffs on Chinese solar panels. The Department of Commerce said it plans to impose duties of between 18.56% to 35.21%. That is much higher than the tariffs announced in 2012.
Regarding the EU FQD: Fuel Quality Directive:
- 2014/06/06: CDreams: EU Gets Ready To Open Canadian Tar Sands Floodgate
  Despite protest, lawmakers poised to give legislative handout to industry that peddles one of world’s dirtiest fossil fuels
- 2014/06/06: OilChange: EU Buckles to Brutal Canadian Lobbying Over the Tar Sands
- 2014/06/05: G&M: Oil sands score win in Europe as EU removes key hurdle
  The European Union appears to be backing away from a contentious fuel regulation that would hit oil sands producers, as governments there worry increasingly about their dependence on Russian energy imports.
  
  […]
  
  The European Commission has removed the most contentious part of the fuel quality directive that would impose new hurdles for Canadian imports, and would instead require refiners to report emissions on their feedstock regardless of the source of the crude, according to a draft document seen by Reuters news service.
- 2014/06/04: DeSmogBlog: European Activists Protest First Major Tar Sands Shipment from Canada, Threaten Escalating Actions
- 2014/06/02: EurActiv: First tar sands shipment to Europe sparks protests
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
- 2014/06/08: ABC(Au): Dozens of Maules Creek coal mine protesters arrested, activists say
  A protest group says around 50 people have been arrested during demonstrations at the Maules Creek mine site near Narrabri in north-western New South Wales. Mining company Whitehaven Coal operates the site and has been recently clearing land in the Leard State Forest.
- 2014/06/07: CDreams: In ‘Surprise Move’, Russia Sets Greenpeace Ship ‘Arctic Sunrise’ Free
  Greenpeace reaffirmed its belief that the arrest of the ship was illegal under international law
- 2014/06/05: OpenMedia: Ottawa Citizen: Government orders federal departments to keep tabs on all demonstrations across country
- 2014/06/05: TheCanadian: Pipeline debate gets truly “extreme” with police raid of suspected activists
- 2014/06/05: Tyee:B: Activists say police drew guns during ‘No Pipelines’ graffiti raid
- 2014/06/05: RNE: Is spying on anti-coal activists just the tip of the iceberg?
- 2014/06/04: DD: Little has changed 1 year after slaying of Costa Rica conservationist Jairo Mora
- 2014/06/04: TheConversation: Is spying on anti-coal activists just the tip of the iceberg?
- 2014/06/03: TP:JR: Australian Coal Companies Used Spies To Infiltrate Group Of Activists
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Barwon Local Area Commander ‘concerned’ about protestor safety
  A senior police officer says she’s concerned about the actions of anti-coal protestors at a mine site at Maules Creek, near Boggabri, in the state’s north west.
- 2014/05/28: Cryptome: End NYPD Targeting Political Activists
What are the activists up to?
- 2014/06/05: TreeHugger: Tastes Like Tar Sands: Crashing the Corporate Beach Party
- 2014/06/05: Grist: The world is yours: Kids take the lead in the climate fight
- 2014/06/04: CDreams: Greenpeace Erects Fracking Site at Prime Minister’s Estate
  Objecting to newly proposed legislation, campaigners object to David Cameron’s push for drilling bonanza with backyard protest
- 2014/06/04: DeSmogBlog: European Activists Protest First Major Tar Sands Shipment from Canada, Threaten Escalating Actions
- 2014/06/03: CPunch: Help Me Help the Oceans — Let’s Make An Appeal to the President of Costa Rica
- 2014/06/01: Resilience: What climate activists should learn from the Monterey Shale downgrade
- 2014/06/01: DeSmogBlog: How Your Town Can Ban Fracking: A Q&A with Goldman Prize Winner Helen Slottje
Native Resistance takes many forms across Turtle Island (and the world):
- 2014/06/02: UDW: Self-Determination as Anti-Extractivism: How Indigenous Resistance Challenges World Politics
The move to divest from fossil fuel investments is growing slowly:
- 2014/06/05: TreeHugger: Is Massachusetts going to divest from fossil fuels?
- 2014/06/02: Tyee: Why the Petro-Divestment Movement Is Unstoppable
  Swelling numbers see only governments can keep life-threatening fossil fuels in ground.
Polls! We have polls!
- 2014/06/06: Maribo: Global warming or Climate Change? It depends when and where
- 2014/06/04 SciAm:Obs: Americans Who Mistrust Climate Scientists Take Cues from Global Temperatures
- 2014/06/02: WaPo:B: A huge majority of Americans support regulating carbon from power plants. And they’re even willing to pay for it.
- 2014/06/02: DeSmogBlog: Americans More Worried About Global Warming Than Climate Change: Yale Study
- 2014/06/01: NYT: Is Global Warming Real? Most Americans Say Yes
  […] What do Americans believe about climate change, and how have those beliefs changed? Our overview follows. First, a majority of Americans say that global warming is indeed happening, and the numbers have held relatively steady since the mid-2000s. Every pollster uses different wording, producing varied results, but the overall pattern is consistent. According to Pew Research Center, 67 percent of Americans say there is “solid evidence that the earth is warming.” Gallup shows that 54 percent say the “effects of global warming have already begun.” In a CBS News poll conducted in May, only 11 percent said global warming did not exist.
Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:
- 2014/06/06: JFleck: Phoenix: population up, water use down
- 2014/06/05: JFleck: In western water, what’s the right role for the feds?
- 2014/06/05: Slate: Gulp: The Lake That Supplies Vegas With Most of Its Water Is Now at Record-Low Levels
- 2014/06/03: JFleck: In British rivers, pollution control seems to be working
- 2014/06/02: KQED:B: Drought Drives Drilling Frenzy for Groundwater in California
- 2014/06/02: BBC: Urban rivers cleanest for 20 years, Cardiff University says
  Britain’s urban rivers are the cleanest they have been for more than two decades, a study has found.
- 2014/06/01: JFleck: That thing I wrote about Lake Mead being the lowest ever turned out to be true
- 2014/06/01: KansasCity: Capturing every drop: Russell, Kan., learns to live with drought
- 2014/05/30: al Akhbar: A new Turkish aggression against Syria: Ankara suspends pumping Euphrates’ water
  The Turkish government recently cut off the flow of the Euphrates River, threatening primarily Syria but also Iraq with a major water crisis. Al-Akhbar found out that the water level in Lake Assad has dropped by about six meters, leaving millions of Syrians without drinking water. Two weeks ago, the Turkish government once again intervened in the Syrian crisis. This time was different from anything it had attempted before and the repercussions of which may bring unprecedented catastrophes onto both Iraq and Syria.
- 2014/05/29: ME Monitor: Up to 80,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem without running water for three months
While in the UK:
- 2014/06/07: UKYCC: Response to UK Government #missingminister at UN climate talks
- 2014/06/05: Monbiot: Ripping Apart the Fabric of the Nation
  In an extraordinary coup, farmers’ unions and the UK government have torpedoed the European Soil Framework Directive
- 2014/06/04: CDreams: Greenpeace Erects Fracking Site at Prime Minister’s Estate
  Objecting to newly proposed legislation, campaigners object to David Cameron’s push for drilling bonanza with backyard protest
- 2014/06/04: DeSmogBlog: Climate Sceptic Roger Helmer Hopes to Be First MP From UK Independence Party
- 2014/06/04: BBC: Green opposition to coalition final-year plans
  Environmentalists are opposing the government’s plans to boost roads, housing and fracking – all announced as part of the Infrastructure Bill.
- 2014/06/03: TPride: Voters with short memories? Newark “forgotten” by government during flooding
- 2014/06/03: OilChange: Leading Climate Sceptic Vying to be UKIP’s First MP
- 2014/06/01: RTCC: Climate change to increase UK flash flood risk – study
- 2014/06/01: BBC: UK government ‘in denial’ over food bank use, says Holyrood committee
  The UK government’s Department for Work and Pensions is “in denial” about the causes of an increase in food bank use, according to a Holyrood committee. In a new report, MSPs argued welfare changes were a “significant cause” of the rise in demand.
- 2014/06/01: BBC: Climate change to boost summer flash floods, says study
- 2014/05/22: NFU: Withdrawal of Soil Framework Directive welcomed
And in Europe:
- 2014/06/08: BBC: Kosovo holds parliamentary elections
- 2014/06/06: BBerg: French Atomic Energy-Output Cuts Would Harm Economy, CEA Says
  President Francois Hollande’s plan to lower France’s reliance on nuclear energy by 2025 would create economic problems for the country, according to the head of the nation’s biggest nuclear research institute. Reaching the goal of deriving just half of France’s electricity output from atomic reactors by 2025 from the current 75 percent “isn’t possible without creating great difficulties for the country,” Bernard Bigot, chairman of the French Atomic Energy Commission, told reporters yesterday in Saclay outside Paris. Prolonging the lives of existing reactors to about 60 years would make more economic sense, he said.
- 2014/06/06: BBerg: Europe’s Unity on Russia Frays as Bulgaria Defends Gas Pipeline
  The European Union’s united stance on the Russian annexation of Crimea is slipping as Bulgaria, its poorest member, accuses the bloc of using a plan by the country to develop a gas pipeline as a pawn in the conflict in Ukraine.
- 2014/06/06: CSM: Ukraine crisis creates new rifts in Europe as G7 shuns Russia
- 2014/06/06: RTCC: EU climate deal in balance as row simmers over 40% CO2 target
  Poland remains opposed to new goals, saying it would leave poorer nations compensating for over-ambition An internal dispute over the fairness of the EU’s new climate policies is continuing to divide nations, five months before the bloc’s new greenhouse gas reductions target must be finalised.
- 2014/06/06: RTCC: Finland reveals new climate change laws
  Parliament agrees to target 80% emissions reduction by 2050 and promote use of renewable energy
- 2014/06/06: BBC: Farm wildlife protection plan ‘fails’
  A bid to protect wildlife and give value to the funding of Europe’s farm policy by taxpayers has failed, a damning study suggests. Farm subsidies cost every EU household more than 490 euros (Â£400) a year, and a process of reforms has aimed to ensure the cash helps the environment. But the report in Science journal calculates that 88% of farms will be exempted from key green measures.
- 2014/06/05: BBerg: Europe Faces Green Power Curbs After Fivefold Expansion: Energy
  Europe’s drive toward a power system based on renewable energy has gone so far that output will probably need to be cut within months because of oversupply. Network operators are likely to curb solar and wind generation at times of low demand to prevent overloading the region’s 188,000 miles of power lines, Entso-e, the grid association in Brussels, said last month. Renewable output is poised to almost double to 18 percent by 2020, according to Energy Brainpool GmbH & Co. KG, a consulting firm in Berlin.
- 2014/06/05: RT: US shale gas exports won’t solve EU energy problems – Barroso
- 2014/06/05: EnergyPost: Video: Brussels Briefing on Energy: All you need to know for June 2014
- 2014/06/04: BBerg: EU Is Omitting Climate in Energy Security Push: Prescott
- 2014/06/04: GEB: EEG 2.0: Bundestag Expert Hearing On Revision of Renewable Energy Sources Act – Including Live Broadcast
- 2014/06/04: RTCC: EU to exceed 2020 climate target by 4.5%
- 2014/06/04: EurActiv: EU eyes export help for coal-fired power plants
  European makers of coal-fired power plants could get financial help to export the equipment, according to a Commission policy paper, flying in the face of environmental opposition to any form of subsidy for coal.
- 2014/06/03: EurActiv: Bulgaria to build South Steam despite Commission warnings
- 2014/06/03: GEB: Cabinet Response to Federal Council’s Rejection of LÃ¤nder Opening Clause to Stipulate Minimum Wind Power Distances
- 2014/06/02: GET: Renewable Energy Policy in Europe is Faltering: What are the Lessons for the Rest of Us?
  The EU’s member states are losing their global leadership on renewables because of hasty and contradictory policy changes. Gavin Purchas and Eric Gimon argue that the world can learn from their mistakes: Predictable support for renewable energies, which is in line with cost reductions, is key for the succesful deployment of renewable energies.
- 2014/06/02: EurActiv: Experts debate: What direction should European energy policy take?
- 2014/06/02: EurActiv: Oettinger: EU help in resolving South Stream’s legal problems is conditional [on Russia adhering to international law]
- 2014/06/01: NakedCapitalism: Michael Hudson: The EU Parliament Elections as a Vote Against the Oligarchs
- 2014/06/01: BBerg: Tusk Taps Tough-Talking Miner to Wean Poland From Russia Energy
  Polish Premier Donald Tusk’s drive to break the ex-communist nation’s links to Russia’s energy chain by modernizing the domestic coal industry…
And in the Indian subcontinent:
- 2014/06/08: al Jazeera: Heatwave triggers riots in Northern India
  Substations are set on fire as protests against power cuts turn violent.
- 2014/06/07: IOL: Heat wave, power cuts, riots in India
- 2014/06/07: IndianExpress: Thousands riot in UP as heat wave prompts power cuts
- 2014/06/07: TStar: Riots, hostage takings in India triggered by extreme heat wave
  Extreme heat in India caused power outages, triggering riots and hostage takings in the impoverished state of Uttar Pradesh.
- 2014/06/07: CBC: India riots sparked by heat wave, power outages
  Police intervene as temperature rises to 47 C and crowd storms electricity substation
- 2014/06/04: TheConversation: India’s energy future: Australian coal or renewable revolution?
- 2014/06/02: al Jazeera: Telangana becomes India’s newest state
  Hyderabad to remain common capital for 10-year-period of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, from which it was carved out.
While in China:
- 2014/06/05: BBC: China’s experts divided over carbon emissions peak
- 2014/06/05: BBerg: China Seeks to Cap Fossil Fuel Emissions for First Time
- 2014/06/05: RTCC: China sets target to slash potent ‘f-gas’ GHGs
- 2014/06/05: RTCC: What does China’s talk of a carbon “cap” really mean?
- 2014/06/05: RTCC: China set to launch Chongqing emissions trading scheme
- 2014/06/05: BBC: Risk posed by China mountain removal
  China’s campaign to bulldoze mountains to create land to build on could cause extensive environmental problems, scientists say. Researchers from Chang’an University in China have warned that dozens of mountains have already been flattened – and this is causing air and water pollution, soil erosion and flooding. They say that this activity is happening on an unprecedented scale.
- 2014/06/04: Xinhuanet:China faces “serious” environmental challenges
  Although progress has been made in the past year, China’s environment, especially water, air and soil, faces serious challenges, according to a report on Thursday. Officials called for improvements to the legal system, a more environmentally friendly development outlook and better institutions to protect the worsening environment.
- 2014/06/04: NatureN: Environment: Accelerate research on land creation
  China’s campaign to bulldoze mountains to build cities needs expertise to avert geoengineering problems, warn Peiyue Li, Hui Qian and Jianhua Wu.
- 2014/06/04: TreeHugger: China pledges absolute cap on carbon emissions for the first time ever
- 2014/06/04: Xinhuanet: China’s water, air, soil in serious situation
  China’s environment is in a critical condition, especially water and air quality, vice minister of environmental protection Li Ganjie said Wednesday. At a press conference ahead of World Environment Day on Thursday, Li said that although China’s environment has improved in general, water quality is “not optimistic” and air quality in cities is “serious”. In China’s top 10 river basins in 2013, about 9 percent of the water was class V; the worst level. Compared to 2012, the percentage of class V water quality dropped by only 1.2 percentage points. Of 4,778 monitoring sites for groundwater almost 60 percent were poor or extremely poor. Water quality offshore is not good either, said Li, with 18.6 percent of offshore water areas only reaching class IV. Water quality in the East China Sea and in four of China’s nine biggest bays was extremely poor.
- 2014/06/03: Reuters: China plan to cap CO2 emissions seen turning point in climate talks
- 2014/06/03: Grist: Did China just outdo Obama on climate action?
- 2014/06/03: TP:JR: One Day After U.S. Announces Emissions Target, China Says Carbon Cap Is On The Way
- 2014/06/03: RTCC: China plans to cap carbon emissions from 2016
And in Japan:
- 2014/06/07: Xinhuanet: Japan underreports 640 kg unused plutonium to IAEA
- 2014/06/07: RT: Japan underreports 80 nuclear bombs-worth of plutonium to IAEA
While elsewhere in Asia:
- 2014/06/05: CCurrents: Re-visiting The People’s Report on Bangladesh Environment
- 2014/06/02: Xinhuanet: Pacific island countries seek common voice in climate change issues
And in Africa:
And South America:
- 2014/06/08: al Jazeera: Uruguay’s Mujica: New global role model?
  Uruguay’s ‘humble’ president defies imperial and corporate hegemony with a series of unorthodox policies.
- 2014/06/06: CPunch: Chevron is Poised to Pounce — The Political Economy of Mexican Oil
- 2014/06/06: TP:JR: Brazil Has Done More To Stop Climate Change Than Any Other Country, Study Finds
- 2014/06/01: BBC: El Salvador: Salvador Sanchez sworn in as president
  Former left-wing rebel leader Salvador Sanchez Ceren has been sworn in as president of El Salvador. Mr Sanchez, 69, of the FMLN party, becomes the first former guerrilla to lead the Central American country following his March victory.
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2014/06/07: ABC(Au): Organic certifier won’t apologise for role in landmark GM canola contamination case
- 2014/06/07: ABC(Au): NSW Chief Scientist compromised
  Newly released documents show the New South Wales Chief Scientist believed the state government compromised her position, over a controversial coal seam gas project in the Pilliga, in north-west NSW.
- 2014/06/06: ABC(Au): Abbot Point, Gladstone, Hay Point, Mackay, Townsville and Brisbane ports declared development priority areas
  Five so-called mega ports will be allowed along the Queensland coast under a State Government blueprint for controversial dredging programs near the Great Barrier Reef.
- 2014/06/06: ABC(Au): Premier Campbell Newman denies receiving feed-in tariff for solar panels…
- 2014/06/06: ABC(Au): Ranger mine to re-open before investigations of uranium spill conclude
- 2014/06/06: ABC(Au): Tasmanian bushfire recovery effort officially over
- 2014/06/06: RNE: The Clean Energy Finance Corporation [CEFC] dedicates $50m to WA waste-to-energy projects
- 2014/06/05: ABC(Au): Angry Nationals MP puts Liberals on notice over claims party tricked into backing fuel tax hike
- 2014/06/05: TheConversation: How does the Bureau’s new mobile weather site stack up?
- 2014/06/05: ABC(Au): Uranium mine given approval to restart processing
  The Federal and Northern Territory governments have given approval for processing to restart at the Ranger uranium mine near Jabiru in the Northern Territory.
- 2014/06/05: ABC(Au): Some insurance premiums could almost double due to climate change: report
  Consumer group Choice is warning the cost of home insurance could almost double in the decades ahead with predictions extreme weather will become more common.
- 2014/06/04: RNE: Solar rush continues in Qld, as Newman plans asset sales
- 2014/06/04: RNE: Australia slashes power emissions 17%, but heading back to coal
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): Queensland Government continues record drought assistance
- 2014/06/04: NewAnthropocene: Australian democracy: why we are fighting back
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): Obama expected to ask Abbott to put climate change back on G20 agenda
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): Resource export surge boosts growth, slashes current account deficit
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): US pollution reduction unlikely to impact on Australian resource companies
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Need a ‘whole of government’ approach to science
  Professor Ian Chubb, the Chief Scientist, discusses cuts to funding of science and research and says with science impinging on fourteen government portfolios there is a need for a plan for the future which prioritises investments.
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Cities need adapt to deadly heatwaves
  Australian cities need to prepare for more frequent, intense and longer-lasting heatwaves and their potentially deadly impact.
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Australian city designs must change in face of deadlier heatwaves: experts
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Invest in a science plan we can be proud of
  Our science commitment historically has been the victim of on-again, off-again policies. That needs to change. We should invest in a national science plan that speaks to the aspirations of all Australians, writes Ian Chubb.
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Muckaty Station: Federal Court hears land rights challenge to site of Australia’s only nuclear dump
Now we get to watch the suppository of wisdom destroy what little Australia has done to fight climate change:
- 2014/06/06: TP:JR: Australian Prime Minister Praises U.S. Climate Action, While Trying To Kill Similar Program
- 2014/06/06: ABC(Au): Immigration Minister Scott Morrison rejects claims of an Australian-led cover up on Manus Island
- 2014/06/05: ABC(Au): Landcare could disappear
  Lynne Strong is worried about the future of the Landcare movement.
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): University of NSW calls for ‘rational debate’ on education reforms rather than ‘misleading assumptions’
- 2014/06/04: RNE: Time for Tony Abbott to admit his climate policy is crap
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): Moree solar on track for Commonwealth funding
  The Federal Coalition is confident the Moree Solar Farm will secure Commonwealth funding despite plans to axe [ARENA] its finance source.
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): Cabinet ministers reject suggestions they tricked Nationals into accepting fuel tax
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): Universities Australia modelling warns of fee increase under proposed higher education reforms
- 2014/06/03: TheConversation: Burn: the Abbott government’s slippery slope
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): Obama, Abbott taking similar approach to climate change: Greg Hunt
- 2014/06/03: RNE: Obama sends a shock through Abbott’s energy ideals
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): Tony Abbott welcomes Barack Obama’s plan to slash power carbon emissions by 30 per cent, likens measures to Direct Action scheme
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): It is Australia’s ‘destiny’ to be powered by coal?
  Tony Abbott has described a coal-powered future as the destiny for the energy in Australia. Many others would beg to differ.
- 2014/06/02: RNE: The maddening destruction of Australia’s environmental markets
  Australia’s path to a low carbon future is littered with the flotsam and jetsam of constant government policy changes, interminable reviews and woeful cost benefit analyses.
The fight over coal seam gas continues:
- 2014/06/06: ABC(Au): Fracking companies acknowledge environmental risks
- 2014/06/05: ABC(Au): CSG water leak a non-event: Santos
  Coal seam gas explorer Santos has described another leak from coal seam gas water storage ponds in north west New South Wales as ‘a non-event’.
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): Call to keep CSG production ban in Sydney’s water catchment
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): Metgasco to launch legal action against State Government’s Bentley gas site suspension
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): Chief NSW scientist recommends ‘ban on fracking’ in Sydney Water catchment area if health risks unknown
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): CSG review recommends environmental rehabilitation fund
  The establishment of a coal seam gas environmental rehabilitation fund has been recommended by the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer. As part of her review into CSG activities in New South Wales, Mary O’Kane commissioned a paper to look into the industry’s preparedness for damaging environmental impacts. The paper, researched by Hicksons Lawyers, suggests that industry insurance requirements to guard against possible environmental damage are somewhat lacking.
After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are far from finished:
- 2014/06/03: TheConversation: The latest Murray-Darling plan could leave farmers high and dry
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): An irrigators group says a reduced cap on water buybacks as part of the Murray Darling Basin Plan will have little impact on the Macquarie Valley
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): South west [Queensland] grazier wants weir water regulations changed
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au): Seafood industry say they’re threatened by change in water requirements
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Berrigan Council calls on RAMROC and water authorities to work together on Murray levels issue
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Irrigators welcome cut in Basin water buybacks
  Irrigators have welcomed a move by the Federal Government to cut its water buyback target for the Murray-Darling by 200 billion litres. The Coalition had promised to reduce Labor’s cap on the volume of buybacks to 1,500 gigalitres, but in the final draft of its water recovery strategy, buybacks will be capped at 1,300 gigalitres instead.
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Murray-Darling infrastructure boost will offset reduced water buyback, Federal Government says
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): High power prices turning Qld irrigators off
  With Queensland irrigators facing a 15 per cent rise in power prices, some farmers are already opting out of watering their crops, because it’s too expensive. There’s anecdotal evidence customers are sacrificing production and turning off their irrigation pumps.
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): NSW emergency drought help expanded
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Chaffey Dam construction announced – will increase capacity to 100,000 megalitres
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Fed Govt sets its eyes on water efficiency in the Murray-Darling Basin
The Federal and now the State Liberals are bent on trashing the hard won Tasmanian forest deal:
The Warburton review of the Renewable Energy Target is designed to kill it:
- 2014/06/06: RNE: RET Road Trip #7 – Blue seats and renewable energy
- 2014/06/06: RNE: Who is the greenest energy retailer in Australia?
- 2014/06/05: RNE: 13 reasons why slashing solar incentives is dumb politics
- 2014/06/04: RNE: Napthine govt calls for gas to be included in RET
- 2014/06/04: ABC(Au): Alleged conflict of interest in energy review panel
  The expert panel which is deciding how much renewable energy Australia should produce is defending itself against claims of conflict of interest because an economist on the panel is using work he did for the oil and gas industry to argue the case for scrapping the renewable target.
- 2014/06/05: ABC(Au): Renewable Energy Target review defends panel member Brian Fisher against conflict of interest claims
- 2014/06/03: RNE: Market operator says unchanged RET may force out coal generators
- 2014/06/02: RNE: Origin says renewables not supposed to displace fossil fuels
- 2014/06/02: RNE: Is Abbott government about to re-invent solar flagships?
Abbott looks so bad, the Turnbull option is being considered again:
- 2014/06/06: NewAnthropocene: Dinner laced with Conspiracy?
- 2014/06/05: ABC(Au):TDU: Turnbull: above the fray of student politics
- 2014/06/03: ABC(Au):TDU: Turnbull again in poll position
  Just a few years ago Malcolm Turnbull’s approval rating was in the doldrums, now the leadership speculation has rounded on the Liberal Party and he is once again the favoured son, write Peter Lewis and Jackie Woods.
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): PM Tony Abbott declares support for Malcolm Turnbull after Bolt’s leadership speculation branded ‘crazy, unhinged’
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Bolt, Turnbull spat overshadows Government’s budget push
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au):TDU: The second coming of Malcolm Turnbull
  Malcolm Turnbull’s behaviour is driving leadership speculation, but Liberal MPs would only turn to him if there was complete voter rejection of Tony Abbott’s extreme right approach, writes Paula Matthewson.
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Malcolm Turnbull says Andrew Bolt’s speculation about his prime ministerial aspirations ‘crazy, unhinged’
- 2014/05/29: ABC(Au): Senior Liberal official joined Clive Palmer, Malcolm Turnbull, and Treasury boss Martin Parkinson at intimate Canberra dinner
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:
- 2014/06/07: PaiD: On Harper’s Hateful Hypocricsy
- 2014/06/06: TStar: Stephen Harper’s blatant hypocrisy on science
  In a CBC interview, Stephen Harper chided Canadians for not listening to scientific evidence, but he has been doing that for years.
- 2014/06/06: NatPo: Andrew Coyne: We once had to wait weeks for a new Harper abuse of power. Now we’re getting them two or three a day
- 2014/06/05: G&M: We’re all climate hypocrites
  Stephen Harper is a climate hypocrite, and everybody knows it. As Barack Obama launched his bold new climate move this week, Mr. Harper lamely muttered that Canada is already way ahead. This, as everybody knows, is nonsense. Canada has no credible plan to meet the target for greenhouse-gas reductions it agreed to five years ago in Copenhagen. We don’t have any plan at all. All we have is the PM’s vague assurance that more regulations will be forthcoming, although you shouldn’t hold your breath.
- 2014/06/05: OpenMedia: Ottawa Citizen: Government orders federal departments to keep tabs on all demonstrations across country
- 2014/06/02: CBC: National Conservation Plan ignores national parks, wilderness — Plan too narrowly focused on built-up areas, critics say
The Harper gang is pushing some fundamentally destructive science policies:
- 2014/06/06: DeSmogBlog: Top 10 Quotes from Canada’s Muzzled Scientists
- 2014/06/04: Grist: Canadian meteorologists barred from talking about climate change
- 2014/06/03: TheCanadian: 300 scholars to Harper: Enbridge recommendation based on junk science
- 2014/06/02: SaskBoy: Lying Leona Gets Out The Muzzle
- 2014/06/02: DeSmogBlog: Environment Minister Calls Muzzling Allegations “Absolutely Ridiculous” in Parliament
- 2014/05/06: PubSci: Un-Muzzled: What government scientists have to say about cuts to science, organizational restructuring, and communication policies
Compare and contrast American versus Canadian climate change mitigation policies and actions:
- 2014/06/04: PI:B: U.S. action on climate amplifies leadership vacuum in Ottawa
- 2014/06/04: NUPGE: U.S. acts on climate change! Will Canada do the same?
- 2014/06/03: MSimon: The Day Obama Humiliated Stephen Harper. Again.
- 2014/06/03: CBC: Obama’s aggressive climate-change move and Canada’s response
- 2014/06/03: DeSmogBlog: Obama’s New Climate Plan Leaves Canada in the Dust
- 2014/06/02: TStar: [Editorial] Obama plan to tackle climate change puts Ottawa to shame
  Barack Obama has rolled out an ambitious program to tackle America’s biggest source of carbon pollution. The initiative puts Ottawa to shame.
- 2014/06/02: PI: Pembina reacts to U.S. plan to cut pollution from power plants
  U.S. action in sharp contrast with Canada’s ongoing failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas sector
- 2014/06/01: Macleans: Obama’s plan to fix climate change … and how it puts the heat on Canada
Examples of irresponsible energy policies:
The ELA is open:
- 2014/06/03: BLongstaff: On the good news front — Experimental Lakes Area is open for business
There are getting to be so manyoil [2] andnatural gas [2]pipelines, one almost needs a scorecard:
The TransCanada West-East [aka Energy East] pipeline has passed the first stage:
- 2014/06/02: TheCanadian: Quebec won’t see job benefits from Line 9, Energy East: report
The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:
There is wrangling over the NEB trying to restrict the Kinder Morgan expansion hearings:
- 2014/06/05: TheCanadian: Financial Post: Kinder Morgan pipeline now faces uphill battle
- 2014/06/05: TheCanadian: Pipeline debate gets truly “extreme” with police raid of suspected activists
- 2014/06/04: TheCanadian: Pipeline debate hits local streets with Kinder Morgan, Spectra spats
TransCanada is proposing the Merrick Mainline Pipeline Project to feed a Kitimat LNG plant:
What’s the state of the West Coast salmon fishery?
- 2014/06/02: TheCanadian: Salmon Inquiry: First Nations angry at Harper’s lack of action
Meanwhile in BC:
- 2014/06/05: TheCanadian: Site C Dam: NDP MLA questions govt on First Nations consultation
- 2014/06/05: NatPo: Climate scientist in defamation case against Post denies blaming Big Oil for office break-ins
  Canada’s leading climate scientist says he never linked two break-ins at his University of Victoria office to shadowy agents of Big Oil. Andrew Weaver was testifying Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court on the third day of his defamation lawsuit against the National Post.
- 2014/06/05: DeSmogBlog: Obama’s New Climate Regulations Could Bring More U.S. Coal to B.C. for Export
- 2014/06/04: TheCanadian: Site C Dam is most expensive power option: new study
- 2014/06/03: NI: “We Won”
- 2014/06/03: DeSmogBlog: Three Decades and Counting: How B.C. Has Failed to Investigate Alternatives to Site C Dam
- 2014/06/03: Tyee: BC Stands By Approval of Large Thermal Coal Storage Expansion
  Legal challenge filed over green-lit growth of Texada Island facility.
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2014/06/02: TStar: Energy Wars: First Nations group says process to expand oilsands ‘like an environmental horror story’
  The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation’s conflict with oilsands developers has attracted international attention and their fight to slow oilsands expansion has run head-on into the far-reaching overhaul of federal environmental rules brought in by the Conservatives two years ago.
- 2014/06/02: OilChange: Desmond Tutu Calls Tar Sands “Filth”
- 2014/06/01: G&M: Tutu’s harsh words prompt new focus on oil-sands fight
- 2014/06/01: WhoWhatWhy: A Cautionary Tale: Tar Sands Oil and Health. Part 2
Also in Alberta:
- 2014/06/03: PostMedia: [Editorial] Time to deliver on promises of responsible energy development
- 2014/06/03: CBC: Plains Midstream fined $1.3M after guilty plea in Alberta spills
  Critics say fine is too low for spills that leaked close to 5 million litres of oil
- 2014/06/02: CBC: Plains Midstream charged in Red Deer River pipeline spill [on June 7, 2012]
  Calgary-based company charged in Alberta pipeline leak that spewed [461,000-litres of] oil into the Red Deer River
- 2014/06/01: DClimenhaga: Don’t let any ‘celebrities’ tell you different, we’ve got friends of science here in Alberta
In Ontario, the June 12th election draws near:
- 2014/06/08: BCLSB: Dear NDPers: The Time Has Come To Do The Right Thing And Abandon Your Party
- 2014/06/07: CBC: Horwath and Hudak attack Liberals over gas plants
- 2014/06/06: CBC: Ontario election: Gas plant docs ‘not in our power’ to release, Wynne says
- 2014/06/06: WSWS: Ontario NDP and unions in spat over what rightwing road to follow
- 2014/06/04: MSimon: The Ghastly Ontario Debate and the Fatal Weakness of Progressives
- 2014/06/04: SudburySteve: On Ethics, That’s a Wrap: Ad Buy Confirms NDP Has Lost Moral Centre
- 2014/06/04: NorRe: The Worst Choice
- 2014/06/03: MSimon: Tim Hudak’s Sacred Oath and the Big Whopper
- 2014/06/03: TheCanadian: Economists aren’t buying Tim Hudak’s Million Jobs Plan
And on the American political front:
- 2014/06/06: EconView: Why are Conservatives Attacking its Market-Based Climate Options?
- 2014/06/06: Grist: Tom Steyer’s latest project will help climate change’s victims [Climate Disaster Relief Fund]
- 2014/06/06: TP:JR: The Northeast’s Cap-And-Trade System Just Had Its Most Successful Auction Ever
- 2014/06/06: CBC: U.S. railroads demand states keep oil shipment details secret — Some states refuse to comply with requests
- 2014/06/05: DeSmogBlog: California State Senators Who Voted Against Fracking Moratorium Took 370% More From Oil Industry
- 2014/06/05: TreeHugger: Is Massachusetts going to divest from fossil fuels?
- 2014/06/05: Grist: This is how little it costs for states to go renewable
- 2014/06/05: TP:JR: New Texas GOP Platform Calls On Politicians To Ignore Climate Change
- 2014/06/05: TP:JR: North Carolina To Lift Fracking Ban And Criminalize The Disclosure Of Fracking Chemicals
- 2014/06/04: PSinclair: Despite Cold Winter: Climate Change Reality Becoming Mainstream in US
- 2014/06/04: UCSUSA:B: Another Reason Ohio Senate Bill 310 Is a Bad Idea: It Hinders Efforts to Comply with New Carbon Emissions Standards
- 2014/06/03: CDreams: In Sign of ‘New Economy’ Rising, Vermont Bill Champions Worker-Owned Co-ops
- 2014/06/03: SciAm:PI: Mmph — a Suggestion for North Carolina Frackers
- 2014/06/03: TP:JR: 6 Coal State Lawmakers Who Are In Favor Of The EPA’s New Rule On Carbon Emissions
- 2014/06/02: BBerg: Five More Ways to Fight Global Warming
- 2014/06/02: CPunch: New York’s Fateful Choice — What’s Wrong With Cuomo’s Energy Plan?
- 2014/06/02: ERabett:BSD: My reaction to Gov. Tomblin on coal not quite what he would want
- 2014/06/02: CleanTechnica: Did California’s Oil Lobby Buy Senate Bill 1132?
- 2014/06/02: CleanTechnica: California Leads Coalition Drivings Towards 3.3 Million ZEVs
- 2014/06/02: TreeHugger: 8 U.S. states create an alliance to put 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on the road
- 2014/06/01: PSinclair: Richmond Times Dispatch: Tax it
- 2014/06/01: NYT: Is Global Warming Real? Most Americans Say Yes
The Keystone XL wheel grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:
- 2014/06/06: DeSmogBlog: TransCanada Cries Foul Over New Keystone XL Security Risk Analysis
- 2014/06/05: DeSmogBlog: Navy Seal Commander Behind Bin Laden Killing: Keystone XL Vulnerable To Terrorism
- 2014/06/04: TP:JR: Former Navy Seal Commander Says Keystone XL Would Be Extremely Vulnerable To Terrorist Attack
- 2014/06/03: CCP: TransCanada Shuts Down Southern Leg of Keystone XL Pipeline, Raising “Suspicions” — already HUGE problems with leaks, bad welds
- 2014/06/03: DeSmogBlog: Questions Raised About Integrity of Keystone XL’s Southern Route After Conditions Added for Northern Leg
Leaks and spills:

Jeez! It’s getting hard to keep all the spills and leaks straight. You need a map. Let’s see…:
1. In the Gulf of Mexico, BP and company had the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
2. The Atwater Village leak in Los Angeles
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics. See also:
- 2014/06/06: TP:JR: Oil Companies Are Still Using The Faulty Equipment That Caused The BP Oil Spill
- 2014/06/05: BBerg: Flaws in Gulf Rigs Persist Four Years After Macondo
An Atwater Village strip club in Los Angeles was anointed with 10,000 gallons of crude oil:
The GOP War on Women continues. See also:
- 2014/06/04: DemNow: 5 Years After Dr. George Tiller’s Murder, A Doctor Braves Threats to Continue Abortions in Wichita
The NorthWest fossil fuel export debate remains heated:
- 2014/06/04: TP:JR: Washington City Rejects Massive Oil Train Project, Citing ‘Unacceptable Risks’
Looking ahead to the 2014 & 2016 elections:
- 2014/06/07: NYDN: Hillary Clinton to embark on massive book tour — and test the waters for possible White House run
- 2014/06/06: Grist: Climate change rocks a key Michigan Senate race
- 2014/06/05: BBerg: Energy Industry Places Big Bets on Republican Senate Victory
- 2014/06/04: CBC: Hillary Clinton says she’d love to see a woman president
- 2014/06/01: NJ: [Editorial] Christie boxes himself into a corner on [RGGI] climate pact
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2014/06/05: CCP: Joe Romm: U.S. Department of Energy makes clear that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is likely a climate-destroying misallocation of resources
- 2014/06/04: TP:JR: Energy Department Bombshell: LNG Has No Climate Benefit For Decades, IF EVER*
- 2014/06/04: US DOE: Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Perspective on Exporting Liquefied Natural Gas from the United States
- 2014/06/04: UCSUSA:B: EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee Comes to Agreement on Ozone Standard Recommendation
- 2014/06/03: DeSmogBlog: Days Before Obama Announced CO2 Rule, Exxon Awarded Gulf of Mexico Oil Leases
- 2014/06/03: TP:JR: Two Steps Remain Before Obama Can Claim A Genuine Climate Legacy
- 2014/06/03: TP:JR: New York And New Jersey Receive Nearly $1 Billion To Prepare For The Next Sandy [admin]
- 2014/06/02: EENews: White House throws ailing reactors a potential lifeline
- 2014/06/02: WSWS: New US coal dust standards leave thousands of miners at risk for black lung
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2014/06/05: SciNews: Big Battle Over 15 Little Words
- 2014/06/03: CCP: Hypocrite Alert: Senator Inhofe Complains about Money in Politics
- 2014/06/03: CDreams: Climate Change, Economic Inequality Are One Debate, says Sen. Warren
  Both issues show clearly that ‘we have a rigged system, where a handful are able to reap benefits at the cost of everyone else.’
- 2014/06/03: OilChange: Hypocrite Alert: Senator Inhofe Complains about Money in Politics
- 2014/06/03: SciNews: U.S. House Wants Limits on Climate, Marine Policy Programs
- 2014/06/02: CSW: House Science Committee majority plays out the politics of climate science denialism
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2014/06/05: Resilience: Scientists vindicate ‘Limits to Growth’ – urge investment in ‘circular economy’
- 2014/06/05: UBardi: Deep Future: the ultimate destiny of humankind
- 2014/06/02: Resilience: Creating a Cooperative Culture
And in the Transition movement:
2014/06/05: Resilience: Resilient Response to Extreme Weather Births Transition-Ham Radio “Practice Networks”

What comes after Capitalism?
- 2014/06/04: CPunch: Climate Change and Capitalism — The Externalities of Global Warming
- 2014/06/03: CCurrents: Eco-Capitalism: Can It Work?
- 2014/06/03: RT: Venezuela, capitalism & climate change
  The problem of global climate change is distressing almost everyone. While a small minority may deny its existence, or question reports on its causes among the scientific community, it is universally recognized as a serious cause for concern. The super-hurricanes over the last decade are closely linked to rising temperatures of sea water, and this is just a small taste of what may lie ahead. Something must be done, the question is what? The responses of governments around the world to the environmental crisis, and its catastrophic weather events, have varied. Various treaties have been signed. Various international conferences have been convened to discuss the issue. A great deal of research has been conducted, and many different plans for changing the relationship of humans to the ecosystem have been proposed. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has just announced its plan to fight climate change. Claudia Salerno, Vice Minister for North America at the Venezuelan Mission to the United Nations, explained her country’s proposals fight climate change at a special meeting with the press May 30. She summed up the plan saying: “Venezuela’s contribution is to change the system, not the climate.” As Salerno laid out the details of the plan, it became clear that the Venezuelan government is aware of what so many environmentalists in the United States cannot bring themselves to say. The failure of governments around the world to address the unfolding ecological crisis is caused by one thing: profits. The changes that desperately must be made to human civilization to stop the climate crisis all cut into the ability of billionaires to make money. They require that restrictions and regulations be implemented. “Our economies are damaging the environment,” Salerno declared.
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2014/06/03: UN: Midwives can prevent two-thirds of deaths among women and newborns – UN report
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2014/06/06: FergusB: The Morrow Project, Part 3: making things worse makes things worse
- 2014/06/05: CDreams: America Will Fail on Climate Change
- 2014/06/06: TP:JR: 7 Reasons America Should Succeed On Climate Change
Another Day in the battle – live to fight again:
- 2014/06/03: Resilience: Endless Layers Of Delusion
How are we going to deal with this mess?
- 2014/06/03: RealEconomics: The best of times. The worst of times.
How do the corporate media measure up?
- 2014/06/08: ERabett: A Paper Named Sue
- 2014/06/07: GLaden: Climate-Contrarian Research: Rebutted by Peer Review, Soaked Up by MSM
- 2014/06/05: NI: Losing the news
- 2014/06/03: MoJo: STUDY: US Reporters Use More Weasel Words in Covering Climate Change
- 2014/06/03: Tamino: Watch the man, not the dog
Here is something for your library:
- 2014/06/05: GLaden: Climate Change Books
- [Book Page] _The Knowledge – How To Rebuild Our World From Scratch_ by Dr. Lewis Dartnell
- 2014/06/04: Resilience: [Book Review] Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Thought and Practice
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2014/06/08: BBC: Polar bear ‘makes’ her own Arctic video
- 2014/06/07: PSinclair:Tidal Wave of Green Energy Swamping Europe. Coming to a Utility Near You.
- 2014/06/07: PSinclair: DeGrasse Tyson/Cosmos Inspires 2 Minute Hate on Fox News
- 2014/06/06: USGS: Through the Eyes of a Polar Bear
- 2014/06/06: PSinclair: Dispensing with Nonsense on New CO2 Rules
- 2014/06/05: EnergyPost: Video: Brussels Briefing on Energy: All you need to know for June 2014
- 2014/06/05: GLaden: US Drought Over Time
- 2014/06/04: Wonkette: Cosmos Recap: The Big Damn Climate Change Episode
- 2014/06/04: PSinclair: How “Drill, Baby, Drill” Killed Old King Coal
- 2014/06/04: PSinclair: PBS: Extinctions on the Rise
- 2014/06/04: PSinclair: Dr. Aradhna Tripati Interviewed
- 2014/06/03: GLaden: A statistically representative climate change debate
- 2014/06/03: PSinclair: Defending the New Carbon Plan, Incoming Fire from Both Sides
- 2014/06/03: PSinclair: Ground Shifting Under Climate Denial
- 2014/06/03: PSinclair: General Wesley Clark on Fossil Fuel and National Insecurity
- 2014/06/03: Resilience: ‘Stand’ a documentary film about British Columbia’s threatened coast (review)
- 2014/06/03: PSinclair: One Vid to Rule Them All, Part 2
- 2014/06/02: PSinclair: New Video: Meltwater Pulse 2B
- 2014/06/02: Grist: The misadventures of eco-comedian Kristina Wong will make you LOL
- 2014/06/01: PSinclair: China’s Water Crisis Uncensored
As for podcasts:
- 2014/06/07: CBC:Q&Q: (mp3) Lightning and Lianas
Meanwhile among the ‘Sue the Bastards!’ contingent:
- 2014/06/05: NatPo: Climate scientist in defamation case against Post denies blaming Big Oil for office break-ins
- 2014/06/04: Grist: Chicago area off the hook from climate lawsuits
  […] As we reported last month, the Farmers Insurance Group filed class-action lawsuits against Chicago-area municipalities … But the company has unexpectedly dropped the suits.
- 2014/06/02: DeSmogBlog: Earthjustice to Defend Right of Dryden, NY, to Ban Fracking Within Town Limits
The Mann defamation suit saga rolls on:
- 2014/06/07: ERabett: Frankly Eli Is Bored
- 2014/06/03: BBickmore: Take Notes, Mr. Steyn
It looks like these BP trials over the Gulf oil spill are going to take a long while:
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
- 2014/06/08: PeakEnergy: Atlantis Joins RusHydro on Australian Tidal Power Plan
- 2014/06/08: al Jazeera: Heatwave triggers riots in Northern India
  Substations are set on fire as protests against power cuts turn violent.
- 2014/06/07: CBC: India riots sparked by heat wave, power outages
  Police intervene as temperature rises to 47 C and crowd storms electricity substation
- 2014/06/06: Resilience: The Global Energy Market’s Moment of Truth
- 2014/06/06: BizSpec: Why renewables will fail without a carbon price
- 2014/06/06: CBC: Turbines will test ocean current off Florida for renewable energy
  U.S. agency promoting underwater turbines as more reliable than wind models Researchers at Florida Atlantic University plan to anchor turbines in the Gulf Stream’s fast-moving waters off the state’s east coast to test whether ocean currents can be converted into electricity. The project will be carried out with the support of the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BEOM), which for the first time has leased out federal waters as a test site.
- 2014/06/06: CleanTechnica: Doubling Renewable Energy Will Save Money And Help Climate [says IRENA]
- 2014/06/06: SciAm:PI: Photo Friday: Where does it come from? Where does it go? Visualizing Energy Flows
- 2014/06/05: GET: Developing and emerging countries take the lead
  Paris-based renewables organization REN21 has published the latest edition of its annual Global Status Report. The 2014 edition finds that, while Europe and North America have become roller coaster markets for renewables, developing and emerging countries have picked up the slack and could be the future leaders.
- 2014/06/05: EnergyPost: Heat pumps: waiting for the final push
- 2014/06/05: RNE: Developing nations lead renewables growth in 2013
- 2014/06/05: RNE: The global energy market’s moment of truth
  If you want to know what addressing climate change will really be like for business and investors, then take a look at today’s electricity and energy markets. Driven by climate policy, technology development, business innovation, NGO campaigns and investment risk analysis, creative destruction is inflicting itself upon the sector with a vengeance – and the process has just begun.
- 2014/06/05: CleanTechnica: Renewable Sources Provide Over 20% Of Global Power Production
- 2014/06/04: Grist: Wave energy finally gets its day in the water off the Oregon coast
- 2014/06/04: NatureN: Solar energy: Springtime for the artificial leaf — Researchers make headway in turning photons into fuel
- 2014/06/04: RNE: Australian wave power technology wins UK grant
- 2014/06/04: GET: The end of the tunnel
  China has set a goal of 12.5 GW of newly installed photovoltaics annually by 2017 – a level equivalent to more than a third of the global market in recent years. Japan is also booming. Craig Morris says the news is more than a light at the end of the tunnel for the solar sector – it’s the end of the tunnel.
- 2014/06/04: EnergyPost: What a difference a decade makes: an updated reality check on the global energy system
- 2014/06/03: EnergyPost: Interview Fatih Birol, IEA: “Gradual change will not save us”
- 2014/06/03: UN: Developing nations’ policies push renewable energy capacity to record high, says UN-backed report
- 2014/06/03: CBC: Days of cheap energy over, IEA figures show — It’s costing twice as much to get oil and gas out of the ground
- 2014/06/03: RTCC: Renewable energy capacity grew 8.3% in 2013
- 2014/06/02: ConvEcon: The U.S. Energy Picture
- 2014/06/02: SciAm:Obs: A New Chemical Recipe Raises Prospect Of Inexpensive Fuel
- 2014/06/02: UBardi: The sustainable energy transition: the need to reform the financial system
- 2014/06/02: BNC: Critique of the proposal for 100% renewable energy electricity supply in Australia
What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?
- 2014/06/02: PSinclair: Solar Threatening Fossil Dominance in China — and the US
What’s changing in energy investments?
Hey! Let’s contaminate the aquifers for thousands of years! It’ll be a fracking gas!
- 2014/06/06: CDreams: ‘Conclusive Link’ Between Fracking, Aquifer Contamination Found in Texas
  Scientists say water samples from Texas man’s well show identical chemical signatures from nearby gas drilling operations
- 2014/06/06: KHOU: Scientists: Tests prove fracking to blame for flaming Texas wells
- 2014/06/04: CPunch: Frack, Rattle and Roll
- 2014/06/02: DeSmogBlog: Loopholes Enable Industry to Evade Rules on Dumping Radioactive Fracking Waste
- 2014/06/01: DeSmogBlog: How Your Town Can Ban Fracking: A Q&A with Goldman Prize Winner Helen Slottje
On the coal front:
- 2014/06/07: NYT:PK: The War on Coal Already Happened
- 2014/06/07: TP:JR: Europe’s Dirtiest Coal Plant Explodes, Killing At Least 2
- 2014/06/06: BBerg: European Coal Approaches Four-Year Low as Oversupply Persists
  European coal prices approached their lowest in more than four years amid a persistent global surplus that Societe Generale SA said shows no sign of easing until at least next year. Year-ahead coal fell for a ninth day in the longest losing streak since Bloomberg began collecting broker data in 2007. The contract dropped 0.8 percent to $79.65 a metric ton at 12:40 p.m. in London. It fell to $79.60 in February, the lowest since September 2009, broker data show. Global coal prices have declined for three years as increasing production worldwide has outstripped declining Asian demand, according to Paris-based Societe Generale. The European contract has fallen 41 percent since peaking at $135 a ton in April 2011, broker data show.
- 2014/06/03: PSinclair: Geology’s War on Coal
- 2014/06/03: TP:JR: Australian Coal Companies Used Spies To Infiltrate Group Of Activists
- 2014/06/02: WSWS: New US coal dust standards leave thousands of miners at risk for black lung
On the gas and oil front:
- 2014/06/06: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  
  Dated Brent Spot….108.61
  
  WTI Cushing Spot….102.66
- 2014/06/04: TP:JR: Energy Department Bombshell: LNG Has No Climate Benefit For Decades, IF EVER*
- 2014/06/04: CSM: Oil could be $15 more per barrel without more Middle East investment [says IEA]
- 2014/06/01: NakedCapitalism: Joe Costello: Why the Oil Industry is Running Into Major Trouble
- 2014/05/30: AlterNet: Why the Oil Industry is Running Into Major Trouble
And in pipeline news:
- 2014/06/03: RT: Gazprom ready to complete South Stream without international finance
Ships and boats and trains — How to tranport the stuff?
A rush of American triumphalism pervades the energy independence PR campaign. Think it will last?
- 2014/06/05: flc: The “Shale Revolution” and “Energy Independence” — Myths, Realities, and America’s Strategic Delusions
- 2014/06/02: CSM: How the California oil boom ended before it even began
  It turns out that the oil industry has been pulling our collective leg.
- 2014/06/02: DOE:TiE: Domestic production satisfies 84% of total U.S. energy demand in 2013
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
- 2014/06/07: CCurrents: Latest IEA Report Tells Us ‘The Fossil Fuel Party Is Over’
- 2014/06/06: Resilience: Peak Oil Revisited…
- 2014/06/05: Resilience: IEA Says the Party’s Over
- 2014/06/04: Resilience: New Energy Report from I.E.A. Forecasts Decline in North American Oil Supply
- 2014/06/03: SaskBoy: Peak Oil Is Not Coming…
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2014/06/04: CleanTechnica: Aurora Algae Farm Throws Down Green Guantlet In Oil State
- 2014/06/02: SciNews: Unusual Microbe Engineered to Convert Grass Into [ethanol]
- 2014/06/02: Eureka: Transforming hydrogen into liquid fuel using atmospheric CO2
  EPFL scientists have completed their solution for transforming hydrogen gas into a less flammable liquid fuel that can be safely stored and transported
The answer my friend…
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2014/06/06: CleanTechnica: Low Cost Concentrating Solar Power System Leverages Calcium Energy Storage
- 2014/06/06: CleanTechnica: Global Solar PV Demand Passes 150 GW
- 2014/06/05: CleanTechnica: World’s Oldest Solar Device
- 2014/06/03: RNE: Toyota installs 500kW rooftop solar array – Victoria’s largest
- 2014/06/03: RNE: Australian solar breakthrough – ‘giant step’ in race against coal
- 2014/06/02: RTCC: Why are solar panel prices starting to rise?
  […]
  
  Solar module prices have been under pressure since 2008 as a result of global over-capacity and falling renewable energy subsidies. Prices are now rising slowly, several manufacturers reported, as a result of a shakeout in the industry which has eliminated some over-capacity, bringing supply back in line with demand. A new European minimum import price – following a trade dispute with China – has also contributed…
- 2014/06/02: RNE: Graph of the Day: New US solar installation every 2.4 minutes
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2014/06/06: NBF: China’s generation 3.5 and beyond nuclear reactors
- 2014/06/05: NBF: China and Russia plan a nuclear energy future – Six new nuclear reactors per year planned in China and Russia has over 20 nuclear reactors for export construction
- 2014/06/05: WNN: Processing resumes at [Australian Northern Territory’s] Ranger
- 2014/06/05: WNN: Fuel loading at Fuqing 1
  The loading of fuel assemblies into the reactor core of unit 1 at the Fuqing plant in China’s Fujian province is underway in preparation for startup.
- 2014/06/04: WNN: [Argentina’s] Atucha 2 achieves first criticality
- 2014/06/04: BBC: Dungeness B nuclear plant operator wants safety limit raised
  A key safety limit at one of Britain’s nuclear power stations is being raised to allow the life of the reactor to be extended…
- 2014/06/03: NBF: Argentina and Russia starting up nuclear reactors in 2014 and Russia has $100 billion in nuclear reactor orders
- 2014/06/03: APR: EPA Announcement; Where To From Here?
- 2014/06/02: APR: Could Korea, UAE partner in exporting nuclear plants?
- 2014/06/01: CSM: Pint-size nuclear plants [small modular reactors] get a boost from Obama administration
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2014/06/05: DCBureau: Breaking Bad: A Nuclear Waste Disaster [WIPP]
- 2014/06/05: WNN: Sellafield sludge plant handed over
  A new Â£240 million ($402 million) facility to handle radioactive sludge at the UK’s Sellafield site has been handed over for final trials after the completion of a six-year construction project.
- 2014/06/04: FukuLeaks: WIPP’s Refusal On Public Accountability
- 2014/06/02: RT: Swiss watch botch: Dumped radioactive pollution concealed for 18 months
- 2014/06/02: ABC(Au): Muckaty Station: Federal Court hears land rights challenge to site of Australia’s only nuclear dump
- 2014/06/01: SwissInfo: Radium in Biel – Residents not informed of radioactive refuse
  Two years after the discovery of radioactive material during work on a motorway bypass in Biel, two Swiss newspapers have reported that the public was never informed, although construction workers were fitted with protective gear. The refuse — containing radium-226, a radioactive metal — is thought to have been deposited in a landfill many years earlier, and likely was produced by the watch industry.
- 2014/06/01: al Jazeera: Swiss town [Bienne] sitting on radioactive dump
  Highly radioactive material has been found in a Swiss dump, with reports authorities withheld the information. A highly radioactive substance, emitting in some places radiation 100 times the permitted amount, has been discovered in Switzerland, local media reported, saying the hazard was known about for 18 months. Le Matin Dimanche and Sonntags Zeitung reported on Sunday that federal, regional and local officials decided not to reveal the discovery of radium in an old dump in the town of Bienne in case it scared the 50,000 residents. “120kg of radioactive waste was obtained after sorting. We measured doses of several hundred microsieverts at the source,” Daniel Dauwalder, a spokesman for the Swiss federal office for public health, told Le Matin Dimanche. In certain places, measurements of 300 microsieverts per hour were taken, more than 100 times the permitted amount for an old dump, the newspapers reported.
Nuclear fusion has been ‘Just 20 years away’ for the past 50 years:
- 2014/06/07: NBF: Bussard EMC2 Fusion Project Publishes on Arxiv With Results Confirming Central Premise of Polywell Fusion
- 2014/06/02: NBF: Summary of Nuclear Fusion Projects
Feed-In-Tariffs (Net Metering & Time-of-Use Tariffs) are being variously implemented around the world:
- 2014/06/04: Lenz: IPCC On the Relation Between Emission Trade System and Feed-In Tariff
- 2014/05/30: ILSR: The Future of Solar Economics and Policy
Like a mirage, the dream of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:
- 2014/06/07: CleanTechnica: Volcano Coughs Up New [H2] Fuel Cell Catalyst
- 2014/06/04: BBerg: Clean Hydrogen Advances Amid Fuel Cell Technology Gains
- 2014/06/04: CleanTechnica: Time To Come Clean About Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles
How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?
- 2014/06/07: RealEconomics: Solar and the electrical utilities
- 2014/06/06: RNE: Outdated power pricing burden Australian households
- 2014/06/05: CleanTechnica: PG&E Answers Questions about Community Choice Aggregation
- 2014/06/04: BBerg: Obama Isn’t Killing Power Plants. The Sun Is.
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2014/06/08: CleanTechnica: Cree Introduces Sleek New Outdoor LED Luminaire
- 2014/06/04: CleanTechnica: Philips Releases 650-Lumen SlimStyle LED Floodlight For Only $13
- 2014/06/03: TreeHugger: New LED flood lights can reduce energy use by 70%
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2014/06/06: NBF: Ford and Samsung on track for lithium ion batteries for 70% of the car line up and regenerative braking and mild hybriding for all
- 2014/06/04: NBF: Nissan To Launch Plug-In Hybrids by 2016 and all major carmakers are focused on plug in hybrids from 2015 to 2020
- 2014/06/03: CleanTechnica: Report: EV Market Worth $178 Billion By 2024
- 2014/06/02: TreeHugger: 8 U.S. states create an alliance to put 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on the road
This week in the Gee Whiz File:
- 2014/06/06: CleanTechnica: Electrical Cables That Can Simultaneously Store & Transmit Energy Developed
- 2014/06/02: Eureka: Breakthrough in energy storage: Electrical cables that can store energy
As for Energy Storage:
- 2014/05/13: ACS:NanLetters: (ab$) A Multifunctional Load-Bearing Solid-State Supercapacitor by Andrew S. Westover et al.
- 2014/06/08: CleanTechnica: Almond Farm Is Site Of New Flow Battery Powered By Solar
- 2014/06/05: CleanTechnica: Advanced Utility-Scale Battery Deployment To Increase Drastically
- 2014/06/04: RNE: Energy storage dominates opening days of EU solar conference
- 2014/06/04: CBC: Electric car with [1600 km] massive range in demo by Phinergy, Alcoa
  Aluminum-air battery uses air and water to release stored electricity
- 2014/06/03: CleanTechnica: New LiCoO2 Research Could Bridge Battery-Supercapacitor Gap
- 2014/06/03: ERW: Structural supercapacitors take a load on
Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:
What do we have in (weekly) lists?
- 2014/06/08: NewAnthropocene: Sunday Reads #6: All things climate, environmental and politics
- 2014/06/07: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #23 by John Hartz
Anything in pithy (or piffling) quotes this week?
- 2014/06/06: DeSmogBlog: Top 10 Quotes from Canada’s Muzzled Scientists
- 2014/06/05: P3: Collective
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.
- 2014/06/03: PSinclair: Ground Shifting Under Climate Denial
- 2014/06/04: HotWhopper: “Expert” David Legates tells US Senate Committee that CO2 is animal food
- 2014/06/06: Moyhu: Nonsense with Illinois USHCN adjustments
- 2014/06/05: Stoat: Tamino considered scary
- 2014/05/30: TP:JR: 7 Groups Attacking The President’s Plan To Cut Carbon Pollution, Even Though It Hasn’t Been Released Yet
  U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans For Prosperity (AFP), American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), National Mining Association (NMA), Heritage Foundation & American Energy Alliance/Institute For Energy Research
- 2014/06/07: IP: Consensus in science revisited
- 2014/06/02: RNE: How fossil fuel interests are funding renewable battles
- 2014/06/01: DClimenhaga: Don’t let any ‘celebrities’ tell you different, we’ve got friends of science here in Alberta [d & alta]
- 2014/06/01: V V: The conservative family values of Christian man Anthony Watts
For your amusment and aggravation — the Tol saga:
2014/06/07: HotWhopper: Ridiculous Richard Tol sez 12,000 is a strange number…
2014/06/06: SkS: Resources and links documenting Tol’s 24 errors by John Cook
2014/06/05: HotWhopper: Busted: How Ridiculous Richard Tol makes myriad bloopers and a big fool of himself and proves the 97% consensus
2014/06/05: ERabett: Model Making, Mathturbation, and Bullshit Tests
2014/06/05: ATTPh: Bravo, Richard Tol, Bravo!
2014/06/05: RealSceptic: Richard Tol’s 97% Scientific Consensus Gremlins
2014/06/04: GPWayne: Arson Attack on Ivory Towers
2014/06/04: ERabett: In the Spirit of Deep Climate
2014/06/02: ERabett: Cooking Tol

As for climate miscellanea:
- 2014/06/01: ArcticNews: Support methanetracker.org
- 2014/06/02: P3: Politics Prefers the Muddle
- 2014/06/02: DeSmogBlog: There is No Scientific Debate on the Science, so Why is There a Public Debate on the Science?
- 2014/06/05: NatureNB: Environmental offsets under fire
- 2014/06/06: SEasterbrook: From Computational Thinking to Systems Thinking
- 2014/06/02: EnvEcon: Regulation Monday (with snark)
- 2014/06/02: TheConversation: We need to talk about how we talk about climate change
- 2014/06/01: TET: Mounting Climate Evidence Underscores the Need to Act [Suzuki]
- 2014/06/01: P3: Whither Planet 3.0?
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- MethaneTracker: Methane concentration levels in 3D
- ILSR: Institute for Local Self-Reliance — Building Community, Strengthening Economies
- Antarctic Glaciers
- Logical Fallacies Poster
- UKYCC: UK Youth Climate Coalition
- DESERTEC Foundation
- Wiki: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
- SourceWatch on American Legislative Exchange Council
- Research Blogging
- Beyond Zero Emissions
- SourceWatch on Marc Morano
- Wiki: Photosynthesis
- Wiki: Atmospheric methane
- TripleCrisis — Global Perspectives on Finance, Development, and Environment
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>

-hetP.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.

“We’re all sitting ducks.” -Michael Oppenheimer
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Last modified June 8, 2014

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Another Week in the Ecological Crisis

Information is not Knowledge…Knowledge is not Wisdom

June 8, 2014

Here’s a wee chuckle for ye:

This week in snark:

Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:

The Globe summit went down this week in Mexico City:

There was also a mega-conference in Singapore which got surprisingly little press:

The big news this week has been the new EPA Carbon Emissions Rule:

Reactions to the EPA Carbon Emissions Rule have been hot and heavy:

The Australian Climate Council released their Abnormal Autumn report this week:

How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

And on the Bottom Line:

Carbon Tariffs have come up again:

Here is something for your Crap Detector:

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

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:

What do we have for Fukushima related papers this week?

The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

As for the charismatic megafauna:

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?

2E became Boris in the Eastern Pacific and then merged with 90L in the Caribbean:

While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

As for the Monsoon:

This week in notable weather:

As for GHGs:

Regarding the solar hypothesis:

Aerosols are making their presence felt:

What’s up with volcanoes this week?

Regarding ozone:

And on the ENSO front:

As for the temperature record:

What’s new in proxies?

While in the paleoclimate:

What’s the State of the Oceans?

And the State of the Biosphere?

And on the extinction watch:

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

How are the Insect Orders doing?

More GW impacts are being seen:

And then there are the world’s forests:

Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

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

As for heatwaves and wild fires:

Corals are a bellwether of the ocean’s health:

Acidification is changing the oceans:

Glaciers are melting:

Sea levels are rising:

As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

First, stop putting GHGs into the atmosphere, Second, begin to reduce current levels of GHGs, Third, save as many species as possible, Fourth, begin to reduce the human population, And elsewhere 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:

What’s new in conservation?

While on the adaptation front:

Meanwhile in the journals:

And other significant documents:

As for miscellaneous science:

In the science organizations:

What’s new in models?

What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

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, as the empire leans on China:

Tensions continue as the empire leans on Syria, Ukraine, Russia…:

Further in the geopolitical shift:

In the “global competition for natural resources”:

The solar spat between China and the USA is back on:

First, stop putting GHGs into the atmosphere,

Second, begin to reduce current levels of GHGs,

Third, save as many species as possible,

Fourth, begin to reduce the human population,

And elsewhere on the mitigation front: