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Pentagon to rank global warming as destabilising force US defence review says military planners should factor climate change into long-term strategyThe Pentagon will for the first time rank global warming as a destabilising force, adding fuel to conflict and putting US troops at risk around the world, in a major strategy review to be presented to Congress tomorrow. The quadrennial defence review, prepared by the Pentagon to update Congress on its security vision, will direct military planners to keep track of the latest climate science, and to factor global warming into their long term strategic planning."While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world," said a draft of the review seen by the Guardian.Heatwaves and freak storms could put increasing demand on the US military to respond to humanitarian crises or natural disaster.	2nd February 2010
The wisdom of Solomon A quick post for commentary on the new Solomon et al paper in Science express. We ll try and get around to discussing this over the weekend, but in the meantime I ve moved some comments over. There is some commentary on this at DotEarth, and some media reports on the story " some good, some not so good. It seems like a topic that is ripe for confusion, and so here are a few quick clarifications that are worth making. First of all, this is a paper about internal variability of the climate system in the last decade, not on additional factors that drive climate.	2nd February 2010
The bottleneck century In his documentary What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire filmmaker Tim Bennett notes that many of the book authors now writing about peak oil, climate change, species extinction and myriad other urgent environmental and resource topics usually end their otherwise grim analyses with what he calls "the happy chapter," a chapter with solutions and responses which will supposedly help us to avert catastrophe.In a new book, Bottleneck: Humanity's Impending Impasse, William Catton, Jr. dispenses with "the happy chapter" altogether and simply gives us the grim prognosis. Human society is now on an unstoppable trajectory for a significant die-off.	2nd February 2010
'Climate emails hacked by spies' A highly sophisticated hacking operation that led to the leaking of hundreds of emails from the Climatic Research Unit in East Anglia was probably carried out by a foreign intelligence agency, according to the Government's former chief scientist. Sir David King, who was Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser for seven years until 2007, said that the hacking and selective leaking of the unit's emails, going back 13 years, bore all the hallmarks of a co-ordinated intelligence operation " especially given their release just before the Copenhagen climate conference in December. See also: Global warming: Undeniable evidence 'Climategate' is bogus and based on lies	2nd February 2010
Obama budget seeks to end oil, gas subsidies WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday asked Congress for a second time to end some $36.5 billion in subsidies for oil and gas companies, saying it would help fight global warming.	2nd February 2010
U.K. to Pay Higher Rates for Clean-Power Production - Update2 - Bloomberg Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. will begin offering above- market rates for clean energy produced by homes and businesses, following policies pioneered by Germany and Spain to spur small- scale use of wind and solar plants to reduce carbon emissions.	2nd February 2010
Germany Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Fall 22%; Kyoto Target Achieved - Bloomberg Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Germany's greenhouse-gas emissions fell 22 percent between 1990 and 2008, the environment ministry said today, adding that the nation of 82 million people has now exceeded the cuts required of it under the Kyoto Protocol climate-change treaty.	2nd February 2010
Obama's nuclear error - $54 billion in loan guarantees make little policy or political sense Today's guest post is by Daniel J. Weiss, Senior Fellow and Director for Climate Strategy at American Progress. For more on the Texas reactor, see Toshiba tells San Antonio its new twin $13 billion nukes will cost $4 billion more! The city balks. This looks like a job for clean energy. President Barack Obama's proposed FY 2011 budget includes some important proposals to invest in clean energy, but it also includes a nuclear bombshell. The budget will seek at total of $54 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear power. This would require a $36 billion increase over the existing $18.5 billion for nuclear loan guarantees, a program created under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 " none of which has been issued yet.	2nd February 2010
Follow the Money Some killer facts from Oxfam: Over 60 percent of the world's poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources " but they rarely share the wealth. 12 of the world's 25 most mineral-dependent countries and six of the world's most oil-dependent countries are classified by the World Bank as highly indebted poor countries. In Africa, about 3/4 of the continent's trade relates to the natural resource sector. In 2003, US investment in African oil exceeded 10 billion per year, some 2/3 to 3/4 of all its total investment in the continent.	2nd February 2010
Climate Science: Shooting the Messenger Regarding the recent attacks on top climate scientists, Radio Ecoshock takes the case of Richard B. Alley. He is the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences, at Penn State University. Alley is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. His popular book about ice cores is called "The Two Mile Time Machine." Alley was expected to give one of the best speeches of the December 2009 annual meeting of the AGU in San Francisco, and he did not disappoint. Here is a short digest of that hour-long Bjerknes Lecture to the AGU in San Francisco in December.	2nd February 2010
A Review of Climate Cover-up by James Hoggan This very timely book is essential reading for those bewildered by the recent backlash against climate science. It takes things back to basics, and rather than being an exploration of the climate science itself, it seeks to equip the reader with the tools to be able to distinguish between the sources of climate-related information. read more	2nd February 2010
Global deal on climate change in 2010 'all but impossible' - Guardian Unlimited A global deal to tackle climate change is all but impossible in 2010, leaving the scale and pace of action to slow global warming in coming decades uncertain, according to senior figures across the world involved in the negotiations.	2nd February 2010
How Can We Talk About Transformational Change Without Losing Hope? Every time we're subjected to more dramatic predictions of global warming without being given solutions, a seed of helplessness is planted in our souls.	2nd February 2010
Time to clean up the oilsands, Prentice says - Toronto Star Environment Minister Jim Prentice says that business needs to work closely with governments to ensure a more sustainable oilsands in Alberta. See also: Canada dilutes target for greenhouse emissions cut	2nd February 2010
UN says nations' greenhouse gas pledges too little - Seattle Times The reduction goals announced by the nations responsible for the bulk of the world's greenhouse gas emissions are likely to fall short of what many scientists say is needed to limit the disastrous effects of climate change, a U.N. official said Monday. See also: World's Nations Set Emissions Reduction Targets: Who's Pledging What?	2nd February 2010
For more news, click here >> News from previous days is below
Lobbyists for foreign corporations begin fight to ensure foreign money can influence American elections This is Think Progress repost. Last week, the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision invalidated a sixty-three year-old ban on corporate money in federal elections. The ruling gives corporations essentially the same rights as individuals in their ability to spend freely on political advertising, even if those advertisements explicitly advocate the election or defeat of a federal candidate. One consequence of this decision is that foreign corporations with U.S.-subsidiaries are likely to be able to now spend unlimited amounts on American elections. Congressional Democrats, led by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), Rep.	29th January 2010
This corruption in Washington is smothering America's future This week, a disaster hit the United States, and the after-tremors will be shaking and breaking global politics for years. It did not grab the same press attention as the fall of liberal Kennedy-licking Massachusetts to a pick-up truck Republican, or President Obama's first State of the Union address, or the possible break-up of Brangelina and their United Nations of adopted infants. But it took the single biggest problem dragging American politics towards brutality and dysfunction " and made it much, much worse. Yet it also showed the only path that Obama can now take to salvage his Presidency.	29th January 2010
Smart grid could reduce emissions by 12 percent (PhysOrg.com) -- A smart electrical power grid could decrease annual electric energy use and utility sector carbon emissions at least 12 percent by 2030, according to a new report from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.	29th January 2010
Water vapour caused one-third of global warming in 1990s, study reveals Experts say their research does not undermine the scientific consensus on man-made climate change, but call for 'closer examination' of the way computer models consider water vapourScientists have underestimated the role that water vapour plays in determining global temperature changes, according to a new study that could fuel further attacks on the science of climate change.The research, led by one of the world's top climate scientists, suggests that almost one-third of the global warming recorded during the 1990s was due to an increase in water vapour in the high atmosphere, not human emissions of greenhouse gases. A subsequent decline in water vapour after 2000 could explain a recent slowdown in global temperature rise, the scientists add.The experts say their research does not undermine the scientific consensus that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activity drive global warming, but they call for "closer examination" of the way ...	29th January 2010
Climate data sound - science head The UK government's chief scientist says his confidence in climate science is unshaken, but calls for more openness.	29th January 2010
Fusion energy hurdle swept aside A potential obstacle to producing energy by laser fusion is swept aside, along with the record for the highest-energy laser pulse.	29th January 2010
Bin Laden blames industrial nations for global warming by Agence France-Presse DUBAI"Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden blamed industrial nations for global warming and urged a boycott of the U.S. dollar to end slavery in an audio tape aired by Al-Jazeera television on Friday. All industrial nations, mainly the big ones, are responsible for the crisis of global warming, bin Laden said in the message attributed to him by the pan-Arab news channel based in Doha.In an unusual message possibly timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, he warned of the impact of global warming by saying that discussing climate change is not an intellectual luxury, but a reality. This is a message to the whole world about those who are causing climate change, whether deliberately or not, and what we should do about that, he said.The Al-Qaeda ...	29th January 2010
Q&A: Rage and the Economics of the Environment TORONTO, Canada, Jan 28 (Tierramérica) - "Rage is sometimes the appropriate response" to the failure of the world's leaders to craft a new climate treaty at the Copenhagen summit, says British economist Tim Jackson.	29th January 2010
Stop Climate Chaos - Ask the Climate Question There is an unelected, shadowy organisation in the United Kingdom; a cultish community of thousands, and their minions, that plots to dictate the leadership of the whole world, starting with the minds of the central Government. You ll see them at work in the run-up to the General Election, possibly suspicious figures masquerading as angels of light in brightly coloured costumes and carrying jokey banners; meddling in democracy at every level " leafletting, holding meetings, putting posters in their front windows and holding consciousness-raising green-fests in their local Town Halls. These people will propagandise the nation, wearing stickers and tee-shirts in an eerily ominous pink.	29th January 2010
Climategate university 'breached data laws' The University of East Anglia may have breached Freedom of Information act laws, says Catherine Brahic	29th January 2010
Germany aims to delay solar incentive cuts: sources BERLIN (Reuters) - German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen wants to delay some of the proposed cuts for solar power incentives, government sources told Reuters on Friday, a move that is unlikely to alter the gloomy outlook for the industry.	29th January 2010
U.S. embraces Copenhagen pact, Senators rework bill WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama Administration formally embraced the Copenhagen Accord on global warming on Thursday, a day after the president urged a fractious U.S. Congress to get to work on comprehensive legislation to stem the nation's emissions.	29th January 2010
On Weather Stations and Climate Trends A new paper throws cold water on the allegation that bad weather stations have amplified America's warming trend.	29th January 2010
RIP GDP Economic growth and climate action 'is not possible'	27th January 2010
Depletion of Key Resources: Facts at Your Fingertips Editor's note: The author presents a definitive essay. Learn why: "Those who expect to get by with 'victory gardens' are unaware of the arithmetic involved." "There are already too many people to be supported by non-mechanized agriculture." "To meet the world's present energy needs by using solar power, then, we would need... a machine the size of France. The production and maintenance of this array would require vast quantities of hydrocarbons, metals, and other materials -- a self-defeating process. Solar power will therefore do little to solve the world's energy problems."	27th January 2010
Ministry of Justice lists eco-activists alongside terrorists Campaigners lumped in with al-Qaida and far right Government criticised for tarring peaceful protesters Government officials have labelled environmental campaigners extremists and listed them alongside dissident Irish republican groups and terrorists inspired by al-Qaida in internal documents seen by the Guardian.The guidance on extremism, produced by the Ministry of Justice, says: "The United Kingdom like many other countries faces a continuing threat from extremists who believe they can advance their aims by committing acts of terrorism."It was sent to probation staff who were writing court reports or supervising a range of activists, including environmental protesters.The advice lists "environmental extremists" alongside far-right activists, dissident Irish republicans, loyalist paramilitaries and al-Qaida-inspired extremists as among groups "currently categorised as extremist [that] may include those who have committed serious crime in pursuit of an ideology or cause".David Howarth, the Liberal Democrats' justice spokesman, ...	27th January 2010
Constituent harassed by Telegraph readers after sending email to Tory PPC How did a private email to a would be Member of Parliament come to be published, with the name and address of the sender, on a blog post at the Daily Telegraph? Methinks, that Edwin Northover has a considerable amount of explaining to do. After all, if he, or perhaps his constituency office, cannot respect the privacy of a constituent when he’s a candidate, how can either be trusted to respect his constituents’ right to privacy and confidentiality should he become an MP.	27th January 2010
Carbon traders quit emissions market amid drop in demand Banks are pulling out of the carbon-offsetting market after Copenhagen failed to reach agreement on emissions targetsBanks and investors are pulling out of the carbon market after the failure to make progress at Copenhagen on reaching new emissions targets after 2012.Carbon financiers have already begun leaving banks in London because of the lack of activity and the drop-off in investment demand. The Guardian has been told that backers have this month pulled out of a large planned clean-energy project in the developing world because of the expected fall in emissions credits after 2012. See also: The death knell for comprehensive cap-and-trade	27th January 2010
National Geographic: greenhouse gases Scientists in Wisconsin are discovering that increased greenhouse gases are having some unexpected effects ...	27th January 2010
Eastern Syria grapples with drought, poverty DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian officials addressing a rare public forum have revealed the full impact of a drought that ravaged the 2008 wheat crop and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the east of the country.	27th January 2010
U.S. Wind Energy Capacity Grew 39 Percent in 2009, Report Says The U.S. wind power industry continued to grow in 2009 despite a global recession, adding 9,900 megawatts " a capacity increase of about 39 percent " according to a new report. That growth, which was boosted by a federal stimulus package that extended the tax credit for wind energy production and offered other incentives, represents the largest single-year jump on record for the industry, according to the annual report released by the American Wind Energy Association. The added capacity was 18 percent greater than the growth in 2008. But that momentum could slow in 2010, the report said, since the sluggish economy has slowed orders for new turbines and will likely mean fewer installations this year.	27th January 2010
Bill Gates disses energy efficiency, renewables, and near-term climate action while embracing the magical thinking of Bjorn Lomborg - and George Bush - Coincidentally, Gates is funding geoengineering research Billionaires say the darndest things! The above screen shot of a nonsensical Bill Gates piece dissing energy efficiency came from his website, The Gates Notes, which turned into a HuffPost piece, and then Yahoo News. Yes, even the very rich are very confused about energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate policy, and global warming " mainly because they keep bad company (see Error-riddled Superfreakonomics , Part 2: Who else have Nathan Myhrvold and the Groupthinkers at Intellectual Ventures duped and confused? Would you believe Bill Gates and Warren Buffett? ): The Gates Foundation mostly ignores global warming (see here) Warren Buffett are so wrong " and outspoken " about cap and trade (see here) Gates and Buffett visited the Athabasca tar sands " the biggest global warming crime ever " to satisfy their own curiosity but also with investment in ...	27th January 2010
Climate sceptics distract us from the scientific realities of global warming | John Cook Is the goal of climate sceptics to lead us into greater scientific truth " or merely to sow doubt about the temperature record?When you peruse the many sceptic arguments against man-made global warming, you find a tendency to focus on a narrow piece of the puzzle while ignoring the broader picture. This narrow focus serves as a useful distraction from the scientific realities of global warming.A recent example is the campaign to sow doubts about the US temperature record. To achieve this, an army of volunteers traversed the US photographing weather stations. Pictures were posted on surfacestations.org, showing weather stations positioned near heated buildings, air conditioners and other sources of artificial heat.Each new photo was greeted with a clucking of tongues and a sense of reaffirmation among sceptics that global warming was largely the product of suspect temperature data.	27th January 2010
Ignore James Hansen's climate predictions at your peril I started reading James Hansen's new book, Storms of My Grandchildren, at the edge of a vanishing Arctic. I sat on a bare brown Greenland hillside listening to the ferocious crack and crash of the dying glaciers in the distance. As I watched the corpse of the ice sheet float by, broken into a thousand icebergs, it seemed the right place to begin the leading NASA scientist's explanation for what I was seeing. Since the year I was born, 1979, 40 percent of the Arctic sea ice has vanished. If we don't change our behavior fast, Hansen says I will live to see the day when it is all gone, and the North Pole is a point in the open ocean, reachable by boat.	27th January 2010
Designer Starck turns to micro wind turbines MILAN (Reuters) - French designer Philippe Starck, creator of chic hotels, high-tech lamps and modern-style furniture, has turned his attention to energy with the design of two sleek micro wind-power turbines aimed at domestic use.	27th January 2010
EU agrees to make lowest climate offer to U.N BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has decided to stick to its lowest offer for cutting carbon emissions under a U.N climate accord, but will maintain a conditional pledge to do more if others follow suit, EU diplomats said on Wednesday.	27th January 2010
Concern About Global Warming Continues to Drop in the U.S., Polls Show Concern about global warming among U.S. adults has dropped significantly, a new poll says, with fewer than 50 percent of Americans saying they are somewhat or very worried " a 13 percent decrease from a poll taken in October 2008. The percentage of Americans who believe global warming is occurring fell 14 percent to 57 percent, and the percentage who think global warming is caused primarily by human activities fell 10 percent to 47 percent, according to the poll funded by the Yale Project on Climate Change and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. The poll also found that 40 percent of the public now believes there is a lot of disagreement among scientists over whether global warming is occurring.	27th January 2010

Cash for influence Can influence on environmental policy be bought? The chances of a global climate deal this year have taken the second major blow in a week in the US. In the latest development, the US Supreme Court has ruled that corporations can spend as much money as they like to influence elections. See also: When Corporations Rule The World - thanks to the Supreme Court [VIDEO] Supreme Court Sanctioned Murder Of Democracy! Keith Olbermann Special Comment ptI ptII	23rd January 2010
A distraction of Himalayan proportions It was one of the most startling predictions in climate science. By 2035 the great glaciers of the Himalayas were supposed to have largely disappeared, threatening the water supplies of tens of millions of people who rely on the ice to feed the great rivers of Asia, from the Indus and the Ganges in the west to the Brahmaputra and the Yangtze in the east. See also: Glaciergate was a blunder, but it's the sceptics who dissemble | Robin McKie Climate Denial Industry Blowing Hot Air On Himalayan Glaciers	23rd January 2010
NASA makes it official: 2000s were the hottest decade on record, 2009 tied for second warmest year - "In total, average global temperatures have increased by about 0.8°C - 1.5°F since 1880." There's a contradiction between the results shown here and popular perceptions about climate trends, [NASA's James] Hansen said. In the last decade, global warming has not stopped. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) released its final report on 2009 surface temperatures Thursday, concluding: 2009 was tied for the second warmest year in the modern record, a new NASA analysis of global surface temperature shows. The analysis, conducted by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, also shows that in the Southern Hemisphere, 2009 was the warmest year since modern records began in 1880 .	23rd January 2010
NOAA: December Global Ocean Temperature Second Warmest on Record - NOAA The global ocean surface temperature was the second warmest on record for December, according to scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Based on records going back to 1880, the monthly NCDC analysis is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides. Scientists also reported the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the eighth warmest on record ...	23rd January 2010
Climate change: Chinese adviser calls for open mind on causes China's most senior negotiator on climate change says more research needed to establish whether warming is man-madeChina's most senior negotiator on climate change said today he was keeping an open mind on whether global warming was man-made or the result of natural cycles.Xie Zhenhua said there was no doubt that warming was taking place, but more and better scientific research was needed to establish the causes.Xie, Premier Wen Jiabao's special representative on climate change, was speaking in Delhi at the end of a two-day meeting of ministers from four of the most powerful emerging economies " China, India, Brazil and South Africa.The four countries, known as the Basic group, called on rich nations to ensure that $10bn pledged to combat climate change was handed over before the end of the year.	23rd January 2010
Climate Slips Off US Agenda - CommonDreams.org by Mitch Potter WASHINGTON – The Canadian government's strategy to let Washington set the pace on climate change has fallen into disarray as American lawmakers lose their appetite for aggressive carbon-cutting legislation in 2010. Public anger exposed by Tuesday's electoral uprising in Massachusetts is resetting Washington priorities across the board, as Democrats and Republicans scramble to address economic issues in a bid to outpace an anti-incumbent mood ahead of November's midterm elections.	23rd January 2010
NREL study shows 20 percent wind possible by 2024 - Half a million jobs, 25% drop in utility carbon pollution for just 2 cents a day per household Back in May 2008, I reported on an amazing study on U.S. wind potential by the Bush Adminstration (see Bush DOE says wind can be 20% of U.S. power by 2030 " with no breakthroughs). The study concluded 20% penetration was straightforward: Annual installations need to increase by only a factor of three from current levels by 2018. Costs of integrating intermittent wind power into the grid are modest. 20 percent wind can be reliably integrated into the grid for less than 0.5 cents per kWh. No material constraints currently exist. This would require 300,000 MW of wind, delivering electricity for about 6 to 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour, unsubsidized (i.e.	22nd January 2010
Thames eel populations crash by 98% in five years, scientists warn Eel populations in the river Thames have crashed by 98% in just five years, scientists warned today. The eel, which has been a traditional east London dish for centuries, now appears to be vanishing from the capital's river, according to researchers from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Each year, ZSL's Tidal Thames Conservation Project places eel traps in a number of the river's tributaries, to catch the fish and allow scientists to record numbers before setting them free. While 1,500 were captured in the traps in 2005, just 50 were recorded last year.	22nd January 2010
World's glaciers melting at accelerated pace, leading scientists say From the Alps to the Andes, the world's glaciers are retreating at an accelerated pace - despite the recent controversy over claims by the United Nations' body of experts, leading climate scientists said today.Lonnie Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University, said there is strong evidence from a variety of sources of significant melting of glaciers - from the area around Kilimanjaro in Africa to the Alps, the Andes, and the icefields of Antarctica because of a warming climate. Ice is also disappearing at a faster rate in recent decades, he said."It is not any single glacier," he said.	22nd January 2010
Finnish winters less icy by century's end: study Freezing weather could be a thing of the past in parts of Finland by the end of the century as climate change leads to rising temperatures, Finland's Meteorological Institute said Tuesday.	22nd January 2010
Send a Sceptic to Siberia Yawn. Yet another anti-Science web log page floats into my field of vision. It's so boring, trying to keep up with the Global Warming Deniers. I can barely keep awake. Here's an example of the trite, and frankly, petulant genre :- [link]news/jamesdelingpole/100023339/james-hansen-would-you-buy-a-used-temperature-data-set-from-this-man/ Actually, don t bother reading it. It's a waste of column inches. If only the Climate Change Sceptics would just go away and let us get on with the gargantuan task of revitalising the Energy industry around sustainable technologies.	22nd January 2010
German solar subsidy cut to spur price dip SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Germany's decision to cut solar subsidies would result in a significant fall in both the price of and demand for photovoltaic panels in the second quarter, research firm iSuppli said on Thursday. See also: Will Germany kill its energy golden goose?	22nd January 2010
One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars - not people, new figures show One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people, according to new analysis which suggests that the biofuel revolution launched by former President George Bush in 2007 is impacting on world food supplies. The 2009 figures from the US Department of Agriculture shows ethanol production rising to record levels driven by farm subsidies and laws which require vehicles to use increasing amounts of biofuels. "The grain grown to produce fuel in the US [in 2009] was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels," said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington thinktank ithat conducted the analysis.	22nd January 2010
Reflections on a hugely changed climate It's hard to overstate how much the events of the last two months have altered the global picture of climate politics. Picture the scene you'd have found on any day towards the end of last year: more prime ministers and presidents talking publicly about climate change than ever before; the vast majority of the world's governments apparently committed to making some kind of agreement that would restrain the growth in greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to avoid "dangerous" climate change; the world's two biggest emitters - China and the US - announcing targets to take into the maelstrom of Copenhagen; rafts of mayors and business leaders and activists straining every sinew to encourage everyone across the finishing line. How different things look now	22nd January 2010
Winner of climate change denial award revealed John Tomlinson, the Michigan Mauler, wins the one and only Christopher Booker prize for falsehoods about global warmingSo now ladies and gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for. I am about to unveil the winner of one of the 300 most prestigious awards in environmental journalism: the Christopher Booker prize, awarded for falsehoods about climate change.The winner will receive this stylish trophy, lovingly fashioned by master craftsmen in mid-Wales, which, believe it or not, is made entirely of recycled materials!Even more exciting is the super soaraway holiday of a lifetime (possibly the final holiday of a lifetime) which the winner will be encouraged to take, and which the Guardian is assisting with a fabulous THREE bars of Kendal mint cake.	22nd January 2010
Bob Lutz On Peak Oil, Climate Change and Electric Cars - EV World Senior General Motors executive Bob Lutz has slammed scientists and environmentalists, saying global warming has little to do with humans and more to do with solar flares and sunspots. The self-confessed petrolhead and man who proudly claims to be a progenitor of the Chevrolet Volt electric car (due in Australia in 2012) still scoffs at global warming.	22nd January 2010
Studies Predict Fewer But More Devastating Hurricanes - TIME It's no accident that the documentary An Inconvenient Truth opens with a satellite image of Hurricane Katrina bearing inexorably down on a helpless New Orleans. Since hurricanes draw their destructive power from heat in seawater, you would expect that global warming would intensify these terrifying storms and multiply their number, leading to increased devastation on land. All other things being equal, that's probably what would happen. But all other things are not equal, which is why the relationship between climate change and hurricanes is anything but settled. Two new studies released this week have moved the ball significantly forward, however. The first, appearing in Science, says the frequency of Atlantic hurricanes will actually decrease during this century but that the most powerful Category 4 and 5 storms will likely double in number.	22nd January 2010
Scrutinizing Swamp Gas: Model Helps Predict Global Wetland Greenhouse Emissions - Scientific American Methane ranks only behind water vapor and carbon dioxide among principal greenhouse gases, in terms of its abundance and global warming potential. Even though it is less abundant and has a shorter lifetime in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, methane in the atmosphere accounts for nearly 20 percent of the heating effect of greenhouse gases compared with carbon dioxide's 50 percent. And similar to CO2, methane in the atmosphere emanates from both anthropogenic and natural sources.	22nd January 2010
Is progressive messaging a massive botch ? - Part 3: How bad messaging creates a self-fulfillling failure of will. Here's an anonymous Senate staffer in an email published by TPM Josh Marshall: The worst is that I can t help but feel like the main emotion people in the caucus are feeling is relief at this turn of events. Now they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done. While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas. They re afraid to actually implement them and face the judgement of the voters. That's the scariest dynamic and what makes me think this will all come crashing down around us in November.	22nd January 2010
As the World Burns How Big Oil and Big Coal mounted one of the most aggressive lobbying campaigns in history to block progress on global warming	20th January 2010
Memo to IPCC: Please reanalyze ALL of your conclusions about melting ice and sea level rise - Good news: The Himalayan glaciers will probably endure past 2035. Bad news: If we don't reverse our emissions trend soon, their disappearance is likely to become irreversible before then. MEMO TO IPCC: If you are going to review the apparently mistaken claim in your 2007 report that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 " please review all of the latest scientific literature and observations on that subject AND please update your equally outdated sea level rise projections. MEMO TO MEDIA: It isn t news that the 2007 projections by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are not accurate. The real news is that the 99% of their mistakes are UNDERestimates of likely impacts. See also : The IPCC is not infallible - shock!	20th January 2010
Spikes & Slopes by Jo Abbess 3 December 2009 One Hot Year 1998 was a very hot year. Worldwide, the land and sea surface temperatures spiked sharply upwards. Scientists said it was supposed to get hot, but not this hot. Yet by the year 2000, things had cooled back down again. In fact, they were a little cooler than 1995. [1] The detailed analysis made it seem like a murder mystery " who killed the heat ? What happened to Global Warming ? Part of the forensic evidence came from analysis of Mount Pinatubo. On 15th June 1991, it experienced massive volcanic eruption causing an enormous plume in the sky, easily visible from space.	20th January 2010
Carbon Plummets as Traders See Oil Booming in Failed Copenhagen - Bloomberg Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The inability of government leaders to agree on stricter pollution controls at meetings in Copenhagen last month is showing up in commodity markets, where it's getting cheaper to emit greenhouse gasses.	20th January 2010
Hanging EPA regulations around Democrats’ necks It has been taken for granted on the left that if Congress doesn t pass clean energy legislation, the EPA will step in to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The threat of that eventuality was supposed to bring intransigent industries and legislators to the table. Only it hasn t really worked as intended" prospects for legislation are looking increasingly dim, particularly with Brown's win last night in Massachusetts.Does that mean EPA regulations are inevitable? Har har. Nothing in politics is inevitable. If legislation goes down in flames, expect a huge fight.[Want to catch up on the why's and wherefore's of EPA regs? See also: Obama faces emissions U-turn with new Congress challenge - The Guardian Foe of EPA Carbon Rules Is Top Recipient of Industry Contributions	20th January 2010
Arctic Tundra is Being Lost as Far North Quickly Warms The treeless ecosystem of mosses, lichens, and berry plants is giving way to shrub land and boreal forest. As scientists study the transformation, they are discovering that major warming-related events, including fires and the collapse of slopes due to melting permafrost, are leading to the loss of tundra in the Arctic. BY BILL SHERWONIT	20th January 2010
Perth sizzles, power consumption soars - Sydney Morning Herald ABC OnlinePerth sizzles, power consumption soarsSydney Morning HeraldMore than 1000 Perth households lost power as electricity consumption peaked to an all-time high as the city sizzled its way through a heatwave. ...Power blackouts to be rectified by this eveningABC Onlineall 12	20th January 2010
Cost of 2007 floods put at £3.2bn Flooding in England in the summer of 2007 cost the economy £3.2bn, a report by the Environment Agency says.	20th January 2010
The Oceans Are Coming - Part III: Remaining Afloat [The first two parts of this series drew a surprising amount of vitriol from people who vehemently deny the merits of the case for adapting to rapid climate change and rising sea levels - greater even than the piece ridiculing the Teabaggers ( [link]2009/09/caution-white-people.html). The torrent of comment spam got so bad that I had to shut down comment submission altogether. It was probably fed to some extent by the various interests which were fighting to make the Copenhagen Conference a fiasco.	20th January 2010
Hedegaard says now is not the time for carbon tax But carbon levy 'could come later' says candidate for future EU climate commissioner role. From BusinessGreen, part of the Guardian Environment NetworkThe debate surrounding the relative merits of carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes heated up today after Connie Hedegaard, leading nominee for EU climate commissioner and the chair of last year's Copenhagen Summit, rejected calls for the introduction of a carbon levy.However, she did not rule out the idea of a carbon tax completely, raising the possibility that an EU charge on carbon emissions could be introduced at a later date."It would be wrong timing at this stage to turn to the tax tool," Hedegaard told the European Parliament, before adding that "it could come later".The EU already has a cap-and-trade scheme in the form of its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), but green groups have consistently criticised the scheme, arguing that ...	20th January 2010
Farm emissions 'far higher than thought' - Farmers Weekly Interactive Livestock farming accounts more than half of all agricultural greenhouse emissions, according to a new report.	20th January 2010
'Cash for Caulkers' aims to make Americans greener at home - The Christian Science Monitor The White House and business leaders team up to craft a program to encourage energy efficient home improvements.	20th January 2010
Copenhagen & Economic Growth - You Can't Have Both Before and during Copenhagen (and after, too, we can be sure), politicians and central bankers across the globe have worked tirelessly to return the global economy to a path of growth. We need more jobs, we are told; we need economic growth, we need more people consuming more things...But the consensus coming out of Copenhagen is that carbon emissions have to be reduced by a vast amount over the next few decades. These two ideas are mutually exclusive. You can't have both. read more	20th January 2010
Buildings 'threaten carbon hope' A dearth of skills and low uptake of known building technologies are threatening the UK's emissions targets, says a report.	20th January 2010
Senate not seen passing climate bill in 2010 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate is unlikely to pass climate change legislation this year after going through the contentious health care debate, and will focus on a separate energy bill that has more bipartisan support, a key Democratic senator said on Tuesday.	20th January 2010

2009 temperatures by Jim Hansen This is Hansen et al's end of year summary for 2009 (with a couple of minor edits). If It's That Warm, How Come It's So Damned Cold? by James Hansen, Reto Ruedy, Makiko Sato, and Ken Lo The past year, 2009, tied as the second warmest year in the 130 years of global instrumental temperature records, in the surface temperature analysis of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The Southern Hemisphere set a record as the warmest year for that half of the world. Global mean temperature, as shown in Figure 1a, was 0.57°C (1.0°F) warmer than climatology (the 1951-1980 base period).	18th January 2010
Exclusive: Dr. Mojib Latif sets the record straight on what his work says about global warming and what it doesn t say about global cooling - Warming might or might not stall for "several years" but we risk "an unprecedented warming in the history of mankind if no measures are taken to cut global carbon dioxide emissions" Here is Dr. Mojib Latif, perhaps the world's most misquoted climate scientist, in a previously unpublished op-ed (boldface in original). Given all the warnings about and plans to forestall global warming, people may be surprised to find, over the next several years that, over parts of the Northern hemisphere, summers are no warmer than before, maybe even a bit cooler"and that winters are as cold, or a bit colder, than they have been in the past couple of decades. This is because the climate may go through a temporary halt in warming. It's nothing unusual, just a natural fluctuation.	18th January 2010
Wilder weather exerts a stronger influence on biodiversity than steadily changing conditions An increase in the variability of local conditions could do more to harm biodiversity than slower shifts in climate, a new study has found.	18th January 2010
Australia suffers hottest decade as globe warms - AFP ABC OnlineAustralia suffers hottest decade as globe warmsAFPAn unusual winter heatwave hit large parts of inland Australia mid-year and resulted in the country's warmest August on record, while another hot spell in ...Second-warmest year recordedThe Australian2009: The second hottest year on recordNEWS.com.auAustralia bakes through warmest decade on recordABC OnlineDigitalJournal.com -Times Online -The Ageall 168	18th January 2010
Glaciers Melting in the Himalayas Video Credit : Asia Society The satellites and cameras do not lie : glaciers in the Himalayas are melting, and the loss of any part of this third pole ice cover threatens the freshwater supply for billions. This weekend's Media clamour on the subject focuses on the trail of a mis-attribution of a claim regarding the complete meltdown of the mountain glaciers. Just because somebody's got their references wrong, doesn t mean that the glaciers have magically not been melting after all. Yes, the IPCC process has failed to pick up this prediction error. No, it doesn t throw the whole of the IPCC reports into the trash can.	18th January 2010
Breaking: 2009 hottest year on record in Southern Hemisphere and tied for second globally - 2010 still poised to be hottest year on record despite cool start in parts of Northern Hemisphere Note: The NASA results are not yet official, but should be Friday. The figure above does not have the December data, but the final figure will look almost identical. Eli Kintisch at Science Magazine just published, 2009 Hottest Year on Record in Southern Hemisphere. He quoted NASA mathematician Reto Ruedy of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies on the as-yet-not-released December and yearly data. We ve all been waiting for NASA's final report on the year " to see whether 2009 will be the second hottest year on record (see Must-see NASA figures compare 2009 to the two hottest years on record ...	18th January 2010
Michael Winship: Global Cooling? Tell It to the Jellyfish - The Huffington Post There are certain newspaper headlines that catch your eye and stop you in your tracks. Like the New York Post's famous "Headless Body in Topless...	18th January 2010
Paging Neil Cavuto: UAH global satellite data has record WARMEST day for January - "It's almost certain by now that January 2010 will also be the globally warmest January on the UAH record" Yes the anti-science crowd, from WattsUpWithThat to FoxNews, have been touting cold snaps over a small fraction of the globe as evidence of the non-exist cooling trend (see disinformers to media: Please make case for something that isn t true using data we don t believe ). Well now even they have been forced to acknowledge that the global record that's going to be set this month is, in all likelihood, for warming " because it is showing up on their beloved satellite data (click to enlarge). Yes, a Revkin tweet put me on to this " and no, I still don t like green eggs and tweets!	18th January 2010
Antarctica is Losing Ice Quickly, Melting Away Another Climate Skeptic Myth Two popular climate skeptic "facts" which are claimed to disprove anthropogenic global warming are: 1. Surface ice melting on Antarctica is decreasing. 2. Sea ice around Antarctica is increasing. Despite what climate skeptics assert, neither of these arguments disprove global warming. Actually, they highlight quite the contrary: Antarctica is in fact losing mass (ice). Even more, ice is melting and breaking away from the continent at an incredibly accelerating rate. This isn't opinion, there is data to prove it. A recent article published by NASA thoroughly explains why these arguments are misleading. The article also offers multiple streams of scientific data to show how alarming the rate of glacial retreat on Antarctica is.	18th January 2010
Drought drives Middle Eastern pepper farmers out of business, threatens prized heirloom chiles by Gary Nabhan Editor's note: This marks the launch of Climate Change and Food Culture, a series of posts by Gary Nabhan about how climate change threatens to stamp out some of the globe's most celebrated foodstuffs, and along with them the farming and cooking cultures that created them. """"""-Dazzling diversity under threat: a woman sells peppers in a Central Asian bazaar. Most Turks live on the water's edge in the far western reaches of their vast country. But many of the spices that perfume the air in Turkey's famous urban bazaars come from the nation's southeastern farming areas of Sanliurfa and Kahramanmaras.	18th January 2010
Even Plants May Not Like a Warmer World - TIME Even Plants May Not Like a Warmer WorldTIMEFor the plants that form the very foundation of the food chain, though, an argument can be made that both global warming itself and the rising carbon ...and more	18th January 2010
Solar Power Is Now an Option for Even the Most Cash-Strapped Suburbanites Residential solar leases offer a no-money-down, low-monthly plan that makes solar electricity cheaper than the stuff we get by wire -- and you don't have to buy the panels.	18th January 2010
EU pushes for deeper carbon emissions cuts - AFP via Yahoo!Xtra News SEVILLE, Spain (AFP) - The EU on Saturday stood by its offer to move to a 30 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 despite the failure of last month's UN climate summit to secure a legally-binding deal.	18th January 2010
Shell faces shareholder revolt over Canadian tar sands project Investors call for review of oil production in Alberta Tar sands deliver less than 2.5of total oil and gas production Shell chief executive Peter Voser will be forced to defend the company's controversial investment in Canada's tar sands at his first annual general meeting, after calls from shareholders that the project be put under further scrutiny.A coalition of institutional investors has forced a resolution onto the agenda calling for the Anglo-Dutch group's audit committee to undertake a special review of the risks attached to the carbon-heavy oil production at Athabasca in Alberta.Co-operative Asset Management and 141 other institutional and individual shareholders raise "concerns for the long-term success of the company arising from the risks associated with oil sands."Shell, which will hold its AGM in May, has been one of the lead companies in moves to develop oil reserves that are ...	18th January 2010
The Disingenuous Environmentalist offers a solution with no funding model Bjorn Lomborg.jpg Bjorn Lomborg, the Disingenuous Environmentalist, is (with the generous assistance of the Washington Post opinion page editor) once again fighting against any tax or regulation that might inconvenience his buddies in the fossil fuel industry. But, perhaps out of character, Lomborg is also proposing a very specific global investment - $100 billion US - in alternative energy research. This is probably a good idea, although anyone who is even slightly skeptical of government might worry about empowering politicians to try to pick winners when it comes to financing research and innovation. Smart economists (clearly a group to which Lomborg has no affiliation) tend to agree that the best way to address climate change is to ask the market to do it.	18th January 2010
Electric cars struggle to spark enthusiasm All the big carmakers at the Detroit motor show had electrically powered and hybrid cars on display, but Americans still aren't buying green vehiclesWith a curiously squashed, elongated body, the Tango electrically-powered car is as narrow as a single passenger and as nippy as a motorbike. Billed as the world's fastest urban car, it can reach a speed of 130mph. Satisfied customers include the actor George Clooney, and its inventor describes the bizarre vehicle as a "chick magnet".Built by a US start-up called Commuter Cars, the Tango takes up only half a traffic lane. It can carry two people tandem-style in slightly cramped comfort.	18th January 2010
If the climate were a bank, they'd have saved it by now The formal outcome of the Copenhagen climate summit was a huge fiasco. It confirmed the world's corporate rulers were simply unwilling to act in defence of people and the planet.	18th January 2010
EU climate nominee warns on green energy leadership - Financial Times Connie Hedegaard, poised to become the European Union's first climate commissioner, yesterday defended her handling of the Copenhagen climate summit and warned that the bloc was losing its leadership in green energy.	18th January 2010
Useful work versus useless toil revisited It was the contention of William Morris, the great progenitor of the modern arts and crafts movement and the historic preservation movement, that the signal qualities of industrial society are waste and useless toil. One hundred and twenty-six years after Morris gave a lecture entitled "Useful work versus useless toil" to a group of workingmen in London, little has changed except perhaps that the amount of waste and useless toil has grown exponentially.The waste, of course, is obvious: wasteful consumption (tied neither to survival nor beauty but rather status); planned obsolescence as an industrial principle (which helps create repeat sales as well as ever higher mountains in our landfills) ...	18th January 2010
Arctic permafrost leaking methane at record levels, figures show Experts say methane emissions from the Arctic have risen by almost one-third in just five years, and that sharply rising temperatures are to blameScientists have recorded a massive spike in the amount of a powerful greenhouse gas seeping from Arctic permafrost, in a discovery that highlights the risks of a dangerous climate tipping point.Experts say methane emissions from the Arctic have risen by almost one-third in just five years, and that sharply rising temperatures are to blame.The discovery follows a string of reports from the region in recent years that previously frozen boggy soils are melting and releasing methane in greater quantities. See also: Wetlands' Carbon, Methane Emissions Boost Global Warming - Time Magazine Warming 'speeds' up gas emissions	15th January 2010
The truth is out there: And they re trying to keep it out Maclean's writer Andrew Coyne shows how The theft and distribution of the East Anglia University Climatic Research Unit (CRU) emails last fall provided a stunning victory to the forces of climate change denial. The emails were received and disseminated in the denial industry as evidence that climate scientists had overplayed their hands or acted inappropriately. And that was used, very effectively, as proof that the science of climate change is, after all, in doubt. But that was only the beginning. Per the case study below, in 2010, we will be treated to a barrage of stories that reference the emails without even including an attempt present or argue their content.	15th January 2010
Was Copenhagen the Death of Multilateral Environmental Agreements? - AllAfrica.com Johannesburg " What do secret declassified documents from the Clinton era tell us about the future of climate negotiations? See also: Pershing Missile Strikes United Nations	15th January 2010
Soros Says U.S. Needs Carbon Cap to Unlock Clean-Energy Finance - Bloomberg via Yahoo! News Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. law to curb carbon emissions would spur billions of dollars of spending on green-energy projects in developing countries, billionaire George Soros said. See also: Investors urge governments to act on climate change	15th January 2010
How High Will Seas Rise? Get Ready for Seven Feet As governments, businesses, and homeowners plan for the future, they should assume that the world's oceans will rise by at least two meters " roughly seven feet " this century. But far too few agencies or individuals are preparing for the inevitable increase in sea level that will take place as polar ice sheets melt. BY ROB YOUNG AND ORRIN PILKEY See also: Radical sea defence rethink urged	15th January 2010
Climate & environment - Jan 14 -The year climate science caught up with what climate scientists have been saying privately for years -Where on earth is it unusually warm?-Britain's cold snap does not prove climate science wrong -Coral Can Recover from Climate Change Damage, New Research Suggests -The resurgence of El Niño means that 2010 could yet be the hottest year on record -The sinking Sundarbans-Major Antarctic glacier is 'past its tipping point' read more	15th January 2010
Errors and lies thrive in cold weather Claims that a cold snap disproves climate change are dangerous nonsense, says Michael Le Page	15th January 2010
The End of Magical Climate Thinking One year ago, America's president said he was going to start a green-energy revolution. Here's why the Obama administration failed -- and what needs to come next.	15th January 2010
Major Antarctic glacier is 'past its tipping point' A major Antarctic glacier has passed its tipping point " it is poised to collapse in a catastrophe that could raise global sea levels by 24 centimetres	15th January 2010
Next few weeks vital for Copenhagen accord, says US climate change envoy Obama administration to work closely on formal details US will not give full ownership of accord to UNThe next few weeks will be critical in deciding whether the Copenhagen accord succeeds in halting global warming, America's top climate change envoy said today."We have an accord that is lumbering down the runway, and we need it to get enough speed so it can take off," Todd Stern, the state department climate change envoy, told an investor meeting at the United Nations in his first public remarks after the Copenhagen summit. "We need to get this up and running."He said the next year would be critical in fleshing out the details of an accord that - because of the chaos and acrimony surrounding the talks - was only 12 paragraphs long.	15th January 2010
Chaperones for climate protection (PhysOrg.com) -- The World Climate Conference recently took place. Reports about carbon dioxide levels, rising temperatures and melting glaciers appear daily. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry and the Gene Center of Ludwig Maximilians University Munich have now succeeded in rebuilding the enzyme Rubisco, the key protein in carbon dioxide fixation.	15th January 2010
Forest CO2 market in the balance: report LONDON (Reuters) - The global market for carbon offsets from planting trees and preserving forests, worth nearly $150 million to date, could stall without a U.S. climate bill or a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, a report said on Thursday.	15th January 2010
The Ends And Means Of Climate Change Mitigation By Stephen Roblin Confusion over the means and ends of radical left activism can be potentially fatal for the causes we strive to advance. And for the case of climate change mitigation, confusion can be fatal, literally speaking, for the human species. Given the potential opportunity to enact binding reductions in carbon emissions at the Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Mexico next year, any confusion that plagues the Left must be lay to rest immediately in order to ensure we play our indispensable role in combating this threat	15th January 2010
US cult of greed is now a global environmental threat The average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, fuelling a global culture of excess that is emerging as the biggest threat to the planet, according to a report published today. In its annual report, Worldwatch Institute says the cult of consumption and greed could wipe out any gains from government action on climate change or a shift to a clean energy economy.Erik Assadourian, the project director who led a team of 35 behind the report, said: "Until we recognise that our environmental problems, from climate change to deforestation to species loss, are driven by unsustainable habits, we will not be able to solve the ecological crises that threaten to wash over civilisation."The world's population is burning through the planet's resources at a reckless rate, the US thinktank said.	13th January 2010
U.S. farm group: Stop EPA on greenhouse gases SEATTLE (Reuters) - The largest U.S. farm group called on Congress on Tuesday to prevent the government from regulating greenhouse gases if lawmakers kill climate change legislation.	13th January 2010
Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit - Center For American Progress A recent report on the November 2009 U.S. trade deficit found that rising oil imports widened our deficit, increasing the gap between our imports and exports. This is but one example that our economic recovery and long-term growth is inexorably linked to our reliance on foreign oil. The United States is spending approximately $1 billion a day overseas on oil instead of investing the funds at home, where our economy sorely needs it. Burning oil that exacerbates global warming also poses serious threats to our national security and the world’s security. For these reasons we need to kick the oil addiction by investing in clean-energy reform to reduce oil demand, while taking steps to curb global warming.	13th January 2010
Massey Energy running attack ads against "tree hugging extremists" coal power.JPG Massey Energy (NYSE: MEE), the 4th largest coal producer in the country is running political-style attacks in West Virginia claiming that "tree hugging extremists and self-serving politicians" are killing jobs, while the coal industry is "fighting hard for Appalachian jobs" and "what's right." I am assuming that when Massey talks about fighting for Appalachian jobs they aren't referring to the fact that earlier in 2009 they cut employee pay by 6% and then recently increased the performance bonus for Massey's CEO, Don Blankenship, by $600,000. And I think it's also safe to assume that when Massey talks about fighting for "what's right" they aren't talking about the major environmental violations over the years culminating in a record $20 million settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency.	13th January 2010
Rightwing climate change deniers are all for free speech - when it suits them Frank Furedi's witchhunt comparsion exposes double standards when UK snow does not undermine global warming consensusRead the piece on cold weather and global warming by George Monbiot and Leo HickmanConservatives are no longer allowed to be wrong. As soon as you point out that someone on the right has made misleading claims, you are accused of pursuing a witch-hunt or behaving like the Inquisition. The delicate sensibilities of rightwingers somehow forbid debate: contradict them, point out their mistakes and falsehoods, and you are immediately charged with persecution.This is profoundly ironic, as the very people who make such charges " Melanie Phillips is a good example " spend the rest of their time waging war on political correctness.	13th January 2010
Search for ice sheet 'tipping point' (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study examines how ice sheets, such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, could become unstable as the world warms.	13th January 2010
A Smoking Dragon in Sheep's Clothing - New York Times NEW DELHI — China presents itself as a schizophrenic power: a developing country on select international issues, but in other matters a rising superpower with new muscular confidence that supposedly is in the same league as the United States. At the recent Copenhagen climate-change summit, China was the former: It loudly emphasized its membership in the developing world and quietly used poor countries, especially from Africa, to raise procedural obstacles in the negotiations.	13th January 2010
Firm signs new trial for energy saving device - Reuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News VPhase has signed a further trial deal for its energy-saving voltage product, highlighting how small energy efficiency firms could come to the fore as Britain enforces stringent emissions targets.	13th January 2010
German Greens at 30, world's No. 1 green party Germany's Greens party celebrated their 30th birthday on Wednesday. The world's most successful environmental party spent seven of those 30 years as junior partner in the government of one of the world's biggest industrial nations and are now part of three state governments. They were the driving force behind the country's Renewable Energy Act (EEG) 10 years ago that has made Germany the world's leader in wind energy and photovoltaic and the world's first major renewable-energy economy " laws promoting the development of renewable energy that led to the creation of some 280,000 jobs in the last decade.	13th January 2010
Avoiding dangerous warming by 2100 'barely feasible' It may be impossible to get low-carbon energy sources online fast enough to prevent global temperatures rising beyond 2 °C by the century's end See also: Climate scientists convene global geo-engineering summit	12th January 2010
Leading climate scientist challenges Mail on Sunday's use of his research Mojib Latif denies his research supports theory that current cold weather undermines scientific consensus on global warmingA leading scientist has hit out at misleading newspaper reports that linked his research to claims that the current cold weather undermines the scientific case for manmade global warming.Mojib Latif, a climate expert at the Leibniz Institute at Kiel University in Germany, said he "cannot understand" reports that used his research to question the scientific consensus on climate change.He told the Guardian: "It comes as a surprise to me that people would try to use my statements to try to dispute the nature of global warming.	12th January 2010
James Hansen rails against cap-and-trade plan in open letter Nasa scientist advocates using fee-and-dividend approach to reducing carbon emissions"You are choosing the path focused on corporate greed," climate scientist James Hansen has told carbon traders in a open letter which he and climate activists attempted to deliver to a carbon trading conference in New York today.In below-freezing temperatures, climate change campaigners gathered at midday at the Irish Hunger Memorial in Vesey Park, near the Embassy Suites Hotel where the conference is being held, to hear Hansen read parts of his open letter. Tomorrow there will be another demonstration at the same spot, at which an unconfirmed number of activists have pledged to commit acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.Hansen's letter advocates using the fee-and-dividend approach to reducing carbon emissions, rather than cap-and-trade.	12th January 2010
Butterflies Reeling From Impacts of Climate and Development (PhysOrg.com) -- California butterflies are reeling from a one-two punch of climate change and land development, says an unprecedented analysis led by UC Davis butterfly expert Arthur Shapiro.	12th January 2010
Oceans losing ability to absorb greenhouse gas (PhysOrg.com) -- Like a dirty filter, the Earth's oceans are growing less efficient at absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas produced by fossil-fuel burning, reports a study co-authored by Francois Primeau, UC Irvine Earth system science associate professor.	12th January 2010
Melting tundra creating vast river of waste into Arctic Ocean The increase in temperature in the Arctic has already caused the sea-ice there to melt. According to research conducted by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, if the Arctic tundra also melts, vast amounts of organic material will be carried by the rivers straight into the Arctic Ocean, resulting in additional emissions of carbon dioxide.	12th January 2010
Unusual Arctic warmth as north hemisphere shivers WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While much of the Northern Hemisphere has shivered in a cold snap in recent weeks, temperatures in the Arctic soared to unusually high levels, U.S. scientists reported.	12th January 2010
Melbourne Swelters Through Warmest Night in a Century - Update2 - Bloomberg Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Residents of Melbourne sweltered through the warmest night in more than a century as warm winds swept the city in Australia's southeast, straining air conditioners and sending crowds to area beaches for relief.	12th January 2010
Deadly jellyfish could see tourism heading south - ABC via Yahoo!7 News Swimmers in far north Queensland have long lived with the threat of irukandji and box jellyfish stings, but the dangerous marine creatures could soon be headed further south.	12th January 2010
U.S. eyes new nuclear plants in climate battle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration wants to help the nuclear industry build a power plant for the first time in years to help diversify U.S. energy supplies and fight climate change, the White House said on Monday.	12th January 2010
The solar cell that builds itself Researchers have used a property of salad dressing to get electronics to self-assemble on a range of surfaces.	12th January 2010
Three Britons charged over 3m carbon-trading 'carousel fraud' Belgium alleges VAT scam over carbon emissions permits Europol fears fraud will be used in energy trading marketsBelgian prosecutors highlighted the massive losses faced by EU governments from VAT fraud today after they charged three Britons and a Dutchman with money-laundering following an investigation into a multimillion-pound scam involving carbon emissions permits.The three Britons, who were arrested last month in Belgium, were accused of failing to pay VAT worth 3m (£2.7m) on a series of carbon credit transactions.European authorities believe the EU has lost at least 5bn to carbon-trading VAT fraud in the last 18 months.	12th January 2010
Trees invading warming Arctic will cause warming over entire region, study shows (PhysOrg.com) -- Contrary to scientists' predictions that, as the Earth warms, the movement of trees into the Arctic will have only a local warming effect, University of California, Berkeley, scientists modeling this scenario have found that replacing tundra with trees will melt sea ice and greatly enhance warming over the entire Arctic region.	12th January 2010
Obstacle No. 64 to dealing with climate change: The cult of celebrity - ScienceBlogs The news that Sarah Palin has found a new platform for her particular take on reality brings to mind one of the biggest obstacles to the development of meaningful action on the climate change front -- or any other serious public policy challenge, for that matter. Palin is more akin to Paris Hilton or Pia Zadora than she is to most other public figures in two ways. First, she brings no obvious talent or experience to the public sphere, just popularity afforded her first by the electorate of a small and politically quirky state, and by the last man standing in one of the weakest fields of Republican presidential hopefuls in the party's history.	12th January 2010
Vestas gains $97 million wind-turbine order - Denver Post Vestas Wind Energy Systems " which temporarily halted turbine production at its Windsor plant in December " said Monday it had received an order for 18 turbines from Canadian utility TransAlta Corp.	12th January 2010
EU trade nominee warns on carbon tax - Financial Times Karel De Gucht, Europe's trade commissioner-designate, warned on Tuesday that a carbon border tax could lead to a trade war as he rejected a policy that had gained traction in Europe following last month's disappointing Copenhagen summit on climate change.	12th January 2010
U.S. Carbon Output to Climb 1.5% on Economic Growth, EIA Says - Bloomberg Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. carbon dioxide output from energy use should rise 1.5 percent this year as the economy recovers from the worst recession since the Great Depression, the Energy Information Administration said today.	12th January 2010

Climate confusion Scientists need to ensure their work is understood	11th January 2010
Largest U.S. farm group rallies against climate bill SEATTLE (Reuters) - The largest U.S. farm group will oppose aggressively "misguided" climate legislation pending in Congress and fight animal rights activists, said American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman on Sunday.	11th January 2010
UK climate is warming despite big freeze Despite the big freeze Britain's climate is getting distinctly warmer " and we may feel it this summerIt may be a hard notion to accept after a week that has seen the nation paralysed by snow and ice. Nevertheless, meteorologists are adamant that our world is still getting warmer. Indeed, many now believe that 2010 may turn out to be the hottest year on record.Britain may be shivering, the Met Office may have issued emergency weather warnings for the entire country and hundreds of trains and flights may have been cancelled, but our future is destined to be a hot and sticky one.	11th January 2010
Arctic Tundra is Being Lost As Far North Quickly Warms The treeless ecosystem of mosses, lichens, and berry plants is giving way to shrub land and boreal forest. As scientists study the transformation, they are discovering that major warming-related events, including fires and the collapse of slopes due to melting permafrost, are leading to the loss of tundra in the Arctic. BY BILL SHERWONIT	11th January 2010
Rice Export Prices Unlikely to Decline, Mohanty Says - Update2 - Bloomberg Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Rice export prices will probably be sustained at about $600 per metric ton after drought and floods damaged crops in India and the Philippines, an agricultural economist said. Rice futures rallied in Chicago.	11th January 2010
Massive crop losses predicted from heatwave - ABC Online The heatwave across south east Australia is worrying fruit and vegetable growers, with one table grape grower predicting a 70 per cent drop in yields. As the heat continues today across South Australia and Victoria, fire authorities say conditions are at their worst in the south east of the country since the Black Saturday fires just over a year ago.	11th January 2010
L&C, GRL, comments on peer review and peer-reviewed comments I said on Friday that I didn t think that Lindzen and Choi (2009) was obviously nonsense. Well, a number of people have disagreed with me, and in doing so, have presented some of the back story on the how the response was handled. I think this deserves to be more widely known in the hope that it will generate some discussion in the community for how such situations might be dealt with in the future. From Chris O Dell: Given the large number of comments on the peer-review process in general and in the LC09 case in particular, it is probably worthwhile to give a bit more backstory to our Trenberth et al.	11th January 2010
EU Carbon May Avoid Drop on Utility Buying, Deutsche Bank Says - Bloomberg Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- European Union emission-permit prices may avoid a decline in coming weeks as utilities buy the allowances, according to Mark Lewis , Deutsche Bank AG's carbon analyst in Paris.	11th January 2010
Geist: Ottawa pulls own Internet hoax - Toronto Star The Canadian delegation at the Copenhagen climate conference was targeted by the Yes Men in a widely publicized hoax. Soon after, Canadian officials quietly set out to shut down the two websites. See also: Canadians believe planet in peril: Poll - CNews	11th January 2010
UK to Meet Carbon Goals Only Due to Recession, Lawmakers Say - Bloomberg stv.tvUK to Meet Carbon Goals Only Due to Recession, Lawmakers SayBloombergThe panel's findings match those of the Climate Change Committee, which advises the government and said on Oct. 12 that the slump may trim polluting ...Ministers urged to provide environmental leadershipPublic Financeall 20	11th January 2010
Calculating the Odds on Climate Change - World Politics Review OutlookCalculating the Odds on Climate ChangeWorld Politics ReviewWhether consciously or not, we are all parties to a massive wager on just how much global warming human societies will be able to cope with. ...Making sense of climate changeAuburn CitizenPolitical climate changeSarasota Herald-TribuneAfter Copenhagen: Jamaica and climate changeJamaica ObserverSunday Standard -China Daily -Nepal Monitorall 116	11th January 2010
The resurgence of El Niño means that 2010 could yet be the hottest year on record Despite the big freeze Britain's climate is getting distinctly warmer " and we may feel it this summerIt may be a hard notion to accept after a week that has seen the nation paralysed by snow and ice. Nevertheless, meteorologists are adamant that our world is still getting warmer. Indeed, many now believe that 2010 may turn out to be the hottest year on record.Britain may be shivering, the Met Office may have issued emergency weather warnings for the entire country and hundreds of trains and flights may have been cancelled, but our future is destined to be a hot and sticky one.	10th January 2010
The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable' - Independent Ditch the dog; throw away (sorry, recycle) those takeaway menus; bin bottled water; get rid of that gas-guzzling car and forget flying to far-flung places. These are just some of the sacrifices we in the West will need to make if we are to survive climate change.	10th January 2010
Chokehold Sought on EPA Over Carbon Rules - CBS News N.D. Rep's Bill Would Reverse Supreme Court Ruling, Remove Authority From EPA to Regulate Greenhouse Gases See also: US climate change legislation Q&A: what will happen in 2010? - Guardian Unlimited	10th January 2010
Venezuela drought raises risk of devastating power collapse - Denver Post Venezuela is at risk of a power collapse as drought pushes water levels precariously low in the country's biggest hydroelectric dam, posing a serious political threat for President Hugo Chavez.	10th January 2010
Voyage around the Americas sees evidence of acidic Arctic Scientists aboard the Ocean Watch, a 64-foot yacht on a year-long voyage circling the Americas, are testing the waters as they go. Instruments on the vessel have picked up evidence of ocean acidification, another result of the spewing of carbon dioxide from tailpipes and smokestacks, they say. Much of CO2 pollution ends up in the atmosphere, but some is absorbed in the ocean, where it is converted into carbonic acid. The average pH of the word's oceans is about 8.1 and the lower the reading, the greater the acidity. Scientists are concerned that if pH levels keep falling ocean waters could eat away the shells of organisms large and small.	10th January 2010
Polar bears in southern Beaufort Sea spending more time on land and open water A long-term study showing the changes in habitat associations of polar bears in response to sea ice conditions in the southern Beaufort Sea has implications for polar bear management in Alaska.	10th January 2010
NIGERIA: Lake Communities Left High and Dry DORON-BAGA and KANO, Nigeria, Jan 8 (IPS) - The fittest are fleeing the shores of Lake Chad: Adamu Modu, a young fisherman, is joining a stream of able-bodied men heading south to find work in the southern part of the country.	10th January 2010
Pine Beetle Turns Trees To Carbon Emitters - OfficialWire Canadian researchers say the pine beetle has killed so many trees, the forests of British Columbia now put more greenhouse gases into the air than they store.	10th January 2010
CLIMATE CHANGE: Watch the Birdies TEL AVIV, Jan 8 (IPS) - Ornithologists say that climate change is having a profound effect on bird behaviour and suggest that this phenomenon can act as an early warning system to the dangers posed to Earth.	10th January 2010
Freezing Europe, warming world - The Age People across the northern hemisphere are facing the fact that a warming planet doesn't get rid of winter.	10th January 2010
Energy supplies: When the wind blows Beware of suspiciously round figures. The only certain thing about the prime minister's claim yesterday that Britain's offshore wind industry "could be worth £75bn and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020" is that none of those three numbers will turn out to be correct. He also omitted the most important fact, which is that the immense schemes given the go-ahead this week may eventually generate 32 gigawatts of electricity. On a windy night, that could be close to half of the national demand. Throw in other renewable sources and " one day " new nuclear plants, and Britain's low-carbon future suddenly seems like much more than rhetoric.The advantages of offshore wind " and Britain already has more turbines at sea than any other country " are obvious.	10th January 2010
There is an alternative to our unhealthy culture of overwork This year, we all need to become more like Utah, under its Republican governor " and then go further. No, dear reader, don t panic " I have not converted to Mormonism, nor have I tossed out my sanity with my old Santa hat and Christmas decorations. The people of one of the most conservative states in the US have stumbled across a simple policy that slashes greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent, saves huge sums of money, improves public services, cuts traffic congestion, and makes 82 percent of workers happier. It can do the same for us " and point to an even better future beyond it " without the need for the Arch-Angel Moron (yes, Mormons really do believe in him) to offer his blessing.	10th January 2010
Paint away the carbon dioxide Repeated coatings of special paint absorb CO2 and deposit layers of "biolime" on a building, adding strength and insulation	10th January 2010
Obama awards $2.3 billion clean energy tax credits WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled a $2.3 billion tax credit on Friday to boost jobs by promoting clean energy, as new data showed the country's unemployment rate remained stuck in the double digits.	10th January 2010
A PENNY A MILE: Hull couple leads the charge with zero-emissions vehicle - The Patriot Ledger USA: HULL — While gas prices have jumped to an average of $2.65, Michael Connelly and Judeth VanHamm are spending only a penny per mile to get around. The Hull couple’s zero-emissions Club Car Village 2+2 became the first vehicle registered in Massachusetts as a “low-speed vehicle.”	10th January 2010
Vietnam predicts drought and rising sea level, damage to crops - Asia News Network Serious drought in the north and rising sea levels in the south may cause significant losses to farmers in the winter-spring harvest, according to a forecast by the National Centre for Hydrometeorology Forecasting.	10th January 2010
Carbon tariffs resurface in Copenhagen aftermath - EurActiv The idea of a carbon tax at the EU's borders is gaining momentum after the Copenhagen climate talks, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy leading calls for a tariff on imports from China and other nations with less stringent environmental protection rules. See also: EU to pursue climate deal through G-20 - San Francisco Chronicle	10th January 2010
China says it achieved its goal in Copenhagen climate deal Chinese negotiators achieved their goal at Copenhagen climate talks in ensuring financial aid for developing nations was not linked to external reviews of China's environmental plans, its top climate envoy said today.	10th January 2010
Why Antarctica isn't melting much - yet Antarctica is warming, but not melting anything like as much as expected. The apparent contradiction is explained by the seasonal pattern of warming	10th January 2010
Lindzen and Choi Unraveled Guest Commentary by John Fasullo, Kevin Trenberth and Chris O Dell A recent paper by Lindzen and Choi in GRL (2009) (LC09) purported to demonstrate that climate had a strong negative feedback and that climate models are quite wrong in their relationships between changes in surface temperature and corresponding changes in outgoing radiation escaping to space. This publication has been subject to a considerable amount of hype, for instance apparently [LC09] has absolutely, convincingly, and irrefutably proven the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming to be completely false. and we now know that the effect of CO2 on temperature is small, we know why it is small, and we know that it is having very little effect on the climate .	10th January 2010
Warmer Climate Could Stifle Carbon Uptake By Trees - redOrbit Image Caption: A surprising new CU-Boulder study indicates subalpine forests in the West will soak up less carbon dioxide as the climate warms and the growing seasons lengthen. Image courtesy Steve Miller, CIRES.	10th January 2010
Comparing Earth's current warming to the Pliocene - The Christian Science Monitor The early Pliocene period might be the best analog for the warmer world scientists expect in the not-too-distant future.	10th January 2010
Echinoderms Contribute To Global Carbon Sink - redOrbit The impact on levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere by the decaying remains of a group of marine creatures that includes starfish and sea urchin has been significantly underestimated."Climate models must take this carbon sink into account," says Mario Lebrato, lead author of the study.	10th January 2010
Methane release 'looks stronger' Scientists have uncovered a further apparent increase in the leakage of methane gas that is seeping from the Arctic seabed.	7th January 2010
Crime in the Post-Peak World As humanity plunges ever more deeply into the age of declining resources, what will be the future of law and order? The particular problem of which I am thinking might be called, more specifically, "future violence," since other acts that are now deemed criminal may seem trivial in later days. Unfortunately all discussion of violence becomes an emotional issue, and a rational answer may be elusive. After all, for most human beings the most terrifying actions on the planet Earth are probably those involving physical assault by other humans. It is therefore hard to get a calm or rational response from people with whom one discusses the matter.	7th January 2010
Earth itself has become disposable Consumerism has, as Huxley feared, changed all of us " we'd rather hop to a brave new world than rein in our spendingWho said this? "All the evidence shows that beyond the sort of standard of living which Britain has now achieved, extra growth does not automatically translate into human welfare and happiness." Was it a) the boss of Greenpeace, b) the director of the New Economics Foundation, or c) an anarchist planning the next climate camp? None of the above: d) the former head of the Confederation of British Industry, who currently runs the Financial Services Authority. In an interview broadcast last Friday, Lord Turner brought the consumer society's most subversive observation into the mainstream.In our hearts most of us know it is true, but we live as if it were not.	7th January 2010
Tipping elements in the Earth System: How stable is the contemporary environment? - Science Daily A Special Feature of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents the latest scientific insights on so-called tipping elements in the planetary environment. These elements have been identified as the most vulnerable large-scale components of the Earth System that may be profoundly altered by human interference. If one or more of those components is tipped -- especially in the course of global warming -- then the age of remarkably stable environmental conditions on Earth throughout the Holocene may end quickly and irreversibly.	7th January 2010
2020: China Rises, the U.S. Declines and the Planet Strikes Back Much will change in 10 years. China will rise, the global South will grow in importance, the U.S. will decline. These phenomena will be eclipsed by devastating planetary changes.	7th January 2010
Boiler scrappage scheme launched Households with a working G-rated boiler will get £400 towards the installation of an A-rated boiler or renewable heating system	7th January 2010
Sarkozy wants French carbon tax to take effect in July by Agence France-Presse PARIS"The French government decided Tuesday that a new carbon tax to fight global warming will go into force in July, a week after the constitutional court struck down a previous version of the measure.President Nicolas Sarkozy told the council of ministers that the revamped tax would be presented to the cabinet later this month and that it would go into force on July 1, government spokesman Luc Chatel told reporters.The Constitutional Council last Tuesday declared the tax illegal, just days before it was to kick in, dealing a severe blow to Sarkozy, who had championed the measure aimed at encouraging French consumers to stop wasting energy.	7th January 2010
12 Innovations That Could Save Us With climate disruption, war, and a faltering economy, that was a tough decade. Still, seeds were sown for a more green and egalitarian 2010s.	7th January 2010
'No conflict' between Big Freeze and climate change The current cold weather gripping the UK does not undermine the fact the world is warming, experts said today.	7th January 2010
Investors Buy Silver Bullion After Global Warming Revelations - PRWeb via Yahoo! News How global warming will affect silver bullion demand and prices?	7th January 2010
Carbon trading expands in volume but not in value - USA Today The global trade in carbon emissions credits expanded last year, with a regional cap-and-trade market in the northeastern USA and Canada taking a growing share, a market analysis company reported Wednesday.	7th January 2010
The 15 Most Heinous Climate Villains The worst and most vile of the corporate-funded climate science deniers responsible for subverting public understanding of climate change, and risking civilization.	7th January 2010
'Joseph E. Stiglitz: Overcoming the Copenhagen failure Time is of the essence. While the world dawdles, greenhouse gases are building up in the atmosphere, and the likelihood that the world will meet even the agreed-upon target of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius is diminishing. We have given the Kyoto approach, based on emission rights, more than a fair chance. Given the fundamental problems underlying it, Copenhagen's failure should not be a surprise. At the very least, it is worth giving the alternative a chance.	7th January 2010
Scepticism will surge in 2010: IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri predicts lobbying will intensify to impede progress to agreement on binding treaty in Mexico City. Climate change scepticism is likely to surge in 2010 and could exacerbate "hardship" for the planet's poorest people, one of the world's leading authorities on climate change has told the Guardian.Writing on environmentguardian.co.uk today, Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, also dismisses suggestions that he is personally profiting from policies to tackle global warming.Climate sceptics gained media attention in the run up to the Copenhagen climate summit after alleging that hacked emails between senior climate scientists showed that an important temperature record was flawed " a charge rejected by governments and scientific bodies. See also: Climate change has no time for delay or denial	4th January 2010
Climate science in 2009 For climate science, the year 2009 brought significant discoveries and startling controversies. Kurt Kleiner reports.	4th January 2010
Planning for plan B Controlling the climate with technology was once the stuff of science fiction. But with tests already underway, there's an urgent need for global governance of geoengineering. Mason Inman reports. [It's interesting to compare the problems of global governance of geo-engineering with that of reducing emissions]	4th January 2010
Consumer Hell How do we break a system which now permeates every aspect of our lives?	4th January 2010
Greenhouse Gases: Who's Cheating? - BusinessWeek The amounts of carbon in the atmosphere are out of whack with predictions and reported output	4th January 2010
Sun, wind and wave-powered: Europe unites to build renewable energy 'supergrid' North Sea countries plan vast clean energy project 30bn scheme could offer weather-proof supply.It would connect turbines off the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany's vast arrays of solar panels, and join the power of waves crashing on to the Belgian and Danish coasts with the hydro-electric dams nestled in Norway's fjords: Europe's first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power will become a political reality this month, as nine countries formally draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea.The network, made up of thousands of kilometres of highly efficient undersea cables that could cost up to 30bn (£26.5bn), would solve one of the biggest criticisms faced by renewable power " that unpredictable weather means it is unreliable.	4th January 2010
Geoffrey Lean is dead wrong, and here’s why by Ken Ward So where do we go from here? asks Geoffrey Lean. How do we get from the ... debacle of Copenhagen to a new and worthwhile climate treaty? The question reminds me of the old Bert & I tale about the Maine farmer who, when asked by a motorist for directions to Millinocket, answers, You cahn t get theyah from heea. Lean observes that Rarely have such high hopes [for Copenhagen] been dashed so swiftly, and says the summit was only saved from total disaster by unprecedented negotiations between the leaders themselves. I’m more inclined to see the unprecedented, last-minute, let’s-save-ourselves-from-complete-embarrassment negotiations as adding final insult to grievous injury, but be that as it may, what’s most interesting in Lean’s analysis are the “7 Steps” he outlines to get from debacle to a worthwhile treaty.	4th January 2010
2009 was our second warmest year ever - Adelaide Now AUSTRALIA'S second warmest year on record 'is consistent with global warming', report finds.	4th January 2010
Who Will Grow Your Food? Part I: The Coming Demographic Crisis in Agriculture This is the beginning of a multi-part series on agricultural education, the farming demographic crisis and the question of who will grow our food - what the problems are, how we will find new farmers, how they will be trained. To me, this is one of the most urgent questions of our time. read more	4th January 2010
Heat cuts Australian citrus crops - Fruitnet.com Unseasonal spring heat has had a drastic effect on Australia’s citrus crops, with exporters fearful of a large reduction in crop yields	4th January 2010
Manufacturing sector savages Darling claim that Labour supports green jobs EEF says 90% of £2bn earmarked for London Array wind farm is being spent abroad. The manufacturing sector has savaged suggestions from the chancellor, Alistair Darling, that Britain is benefiting from government support for a "green" jobs revolution, warning that the UK was instead in danger of "missing the boat".The industry body, the EEF, points out that over 90% of the 2bn earmarked for the world's biggest wind farm in UK waters " the London Array, off Kent " is being spent abroad and ministers must take some of the blame."In Germany you get government sitting down with business and saying, this is what the targets are for renewable energy and what do you need to provide the kind of necessary capacity," said the EEF's head of climate change and environment policy, Gareth Stace.	4th January 2010
Climate deal 'satisfies' Saudis The world's largest oil producer says it is satisfied by the outcome of UN climate talks, but warns of tensions ahead.	4th January 2010
Dude, Where's My Climate ? Some of you are probably thinking, what a crummy out-of-date cliched non-joke of a title ! , but I m hoping for some web hits on the basis that corny can be cute, sometimes. But what on Earth do I mean ? Well, just where is Climate Change in the Media ? It is the Number One story of all human time, so why does it still only occupy so few column inches and Tweets and Press Releases and web logs and TV programmes and printed communications, and why do the Westerner populations still think that money is still more important than an inhabitable Biosphere ?	4th January 2010
Scrap the carbon tariff Despite their political popularity, carbon tariffs will be next to impossible to implement effectively, and as such will do little to solve the climate problem.	4th January 2010
EU Carbon Permits Jump Most in Five Months as Oil, Gas Advance - Bloomberg Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- European Union carbon-dioxide permits jumped the most in five months as crude oil and natural-gas prices advanced, boosting demand for emission allowances.	4th January 2010
James Hansen vs. Cap-and-Trade NASA climate scientist James Hansen has a new book out about climate policy, with excerpts in this month's issue of The Nation. And in my view, he's got a pretty good policy idea: tax carbon, and use the revenue to give out rebates in equal, per capita shares to every U.S. citizen. It's a twofer"the carbon tax helps drive down emissions, and the rebate makes sure that it's fair to middle- and lower-income folks who d otherwise bear the brunt of the tax.If I were the globe's climate czar, Hansen's tax-and-dividend plan is one of the top 5 to 10 ideas I d give serious consideration.That's the good news. See also: James Hansen says goodbye to "scientific reticence" [The Island of Doubt] - ScienceBlogs	4th January 2010
Where the Action Is on Climate - New York Times Congress should fashion a national response to climate change after green initiatives made by states and cities.	4th January 2010
The comparative costs of climate change - The Christian Science Monitor How much will mitigating global warming or climate change cost the world? Here are some comparisons.	4th January 2010
Climate Problem Is Really A Justice Problem By Tom AthanasiouDespite its disappointments, the climate summit in Copenhagen marks a turning point- the end of denial. Whats next is recognizing that our climate problem is really a justice problem	2nd January 2010
Africa's apocalyptic mood | Cameron Duodu Religious fervour and the effects of climate change may combine with explosive effect over the coming months and yearsThe story is told of how two Ghanaian old ladies emerged from church one Sunday morning in June 1967. During the service, the minister had asked for prayers for the people of Israel, who were at war."Akosua", one lady turned to the other, "what are we going to do?""Do about what?" the other asked, perplexed."Didn't you hear the priest? Jerusalem is about to be destroyed!""Oh that ""Yes. You and I have been paying our church dues regularly.	2nd January 2010
James Hansen : More Right Than Wrong You know, back in 1988, James Hansen had some fairly basic FORTRAN computing code and an embarrassingly uncomplex model of the World Ocean, and yet he still came up with shockingly accurate projections of Global Warming. The data is in. The models were right (more or less).	2nd January 2010
California's renewable pipeline hits nearly 70 GW LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Renewable energy projects proposed in California total nearly 70 gigawatts, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Tuesday, a large pipeline that could help the state meet its renewable energy goals.	2nd January 2010
Quebec adopts California's auto emission standards TORONTO (Reuters) - Quebec will become the first province in Canada to adopt California's strict auto emissions standards, the province's environment ministry said on Tuesday.	2nd January 2010
CLIMATE CHANGE: Doors Opening for Carbon Tax BERLIN, Dec 30 (Tierramérica) - With the chance for a global climate change treaty on hold, a tax on greenhouse gases could be an effective alternative for discouraging the activities that create emissions, say economists and environmentalists.	2nd January 2010
Green technology to be harnessed by top firms and academics to overhaul UK infrastructure Sustainability scheme could create tens of thousands of jobs 'Retrofitting' homes could make Britain a pioneer in field. Some of Britain's leading firms are partnering top academic institutions to develop projects that will overhaul household energy, water, transport and waste provision to drastically cut carbon emissions.The groundbreaking partnership, led by Arup's global planning chief, Peter Head, involves 25 international companies including GE (the world's biggest company, according to Forbes). HSBC, French energy firm EDF, Thames Water, Marks Spencer and waste management firm Biffa are also behind the plan.Politicians and regulators are calling for a "green new deal" to help lift the economy out of recession.	2nd January 2010
What's Tipping & What's Toppling ? What's toppling already in the Earth System ?	2nd January 2010
Snow isn't erasing lingering drought - San Francisco Chronicle The recent dose of foul weather has raised the spirits of California's water lords, but measurements taken Wednesday in the Sierra Nevada show there is still not enough snow to ease drought conditions.	2nd January 2010
Roundup: Climate science in 2009 For climate science, the year 2009 brought significant discoveries and startling controversies. From Climate Feedback part of Guardian Environment NetworkWarming goes globalThe year started out with some sobering, if not altogether surprising, news: overall, the Antarctic continent is warming. Although some of the Antarctic Peninsula had previously shown rapid warming, parts of the continent " especially near the South Pole " seemed to be unaccountably cooling.In January, climatologist Eric Steig of the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues reported (Nature 457, 459"462; 2009) that warming was widespread across the continent. Using satellite measurements combined with historical weather station data to interpolate Antarctic temperatures over the last 50 years, they found that the average temperature in West Antarctica had increased 0.1 °C per year.	2nd January 2010
Hope, hopelessness and faith For those involved in issues of sustainability, peak oil, climate change, and relocalization it might be better to feel a certain hopelessness in our situation. For hope implies dependence on forces outside ourselves. Once we abandon that hope, we can get down to the tasks at hand, the tasks that need to be done--for which we need to ask no politician or government official permission--tasks that we can get started on today. In this way hopelessness concerning the current political and economic arrangements becomes an ally. read more	2nd January 2010
How Dare You Be Optimistic ! How dare you be pessimistic ?	2nd January 2010
Gore: Carbon Polluters Like Big Tobacco - CBS News CBS NewsGore: Carbon Polluters Like Big TobaccoCBS News... topic in the climate change debate. So, does the political will to save the planet from the potential harm from global warming still exist in the US? ...Matters to Contemplate: Is planet doomed by a 'Climate Crisis?' Scientists ...Reno Gazette JournalSUBJECT: CLIMATE CHANGE INTERVIEWER: HARRY SMITHFederal News Service (subscription)Gore: Polluters like big tobaccoThe Hill (blog)all 8	2nd January 2010

James Hansen | Copenhagen has given us the chance to face climate change with honesty A carbon-use dividend for everybody must replace the old, ineffectual 'cap-and-trade' schemeLast weekend's minimalist Copenhagen global climate accord provides a great opportunity. The old deceitful, ineffectual approach is severely wounded and must die. Now there is a chance for the world to get on to an honest, effective path to an agreement.The centrepiece of the old approach was a "cap-and-trade" scheme, festooned with offsets and bribes " bribes that purportedly, but hardly, reduced carbon emissions. It was analogous to the indulgences scheme of the Middle Ages, whereby sinners paid the Church for forgiveness.In today's indulgences the sinners, developed countries, buy off developing countries by paying for "offsets" to their own emissions and providing reparation money for adaptation to climate change.	29th December 2009
China introduces law to boost renewable energy BEIJING (Reuters) - A new Chinese law requires power grid operators to buy all the electricity produced by renewable energy generators, in a move that will increase the proportion of energy that comes from renewable sources in coal-dependent China.	29th December 2009
Toilet Power Trumps Nuclear Image Credit : NowPublic I still don t know what all the fuss is about Nuclear Power, when the BioMethane from all the toilets, farm slurry, hospital and food waste in the country could trounce the amount of power available from atoms by 2020. Without all that nasty radioactive leftover, massive expensive building projects, social tension, election nightmare and increasing security issues. With a bit of time on my paws over the Christmas Vortex (everything gets sucked up by Christmas and nothing ever gets spat out again until January), I started to dig into Professor David J.	29th December 2009
Which way will the wind - power blow in 2010? The United States became the No. 1 wind power market in the world in 2008. But under the credit crisis in 2009, the building of new wind farms slackened and the United States ceded its top global spot to China. With the demand for renewable energy still growing, the American Wind Energy Association is eyeing 2010 as a critical year. Here are some of their top trends to watch for: Second to natural gas: Wind power generates only 2 percent of the U.S. electrical supply. But new wind power generation in the United States has been second only to natural gas generation in terms of new capacity built each year since 2005. See also: Is clean tech the next bubble? - National Post	29th December 2009
Dismantling the Infrastructure: A Scientific Approach I have always been wary about technologies, despite the fact that I graduated as an electrical engineer, and defended two dissertations. The Chernobyl disaster put an end to my infatuation with science, and revived my interest in poetry, philosophy and nature. Since the late '80s, I was gradually converted into the Luddite type of a scientist and stepped onto a shaky path of techno-criticism. I remember my enthusiasm when, in the mid-'90s, I found in the America House Library a book openly criticizing the technological society. I knew then I was not alone.	29th December 2009
Economics and the environment: Down to earth index How much is the planet worth? Not a jot, according to most economists' calculations. Last week, politicians and City analysts got Tiggerishly excited over an official report showing that Britain's economy shrank 0.2% in the three months to the end of September rather than the 0.4% initially reported. Yet that all-important measure of GDP is a 20th-century invention which simply tots up all the goods and services produced in an economy, as valued at market prices. Among all the many things it leaves out is the cost to the environment of this activity. Indeed, it often puts a perverse value on damage to the planet.	29th December 2009
The Lost Decade: What The World Can Learn From 10 Years Of Excesses - Free Internet Press The first decade of the 21st century was marked by crises. Militant Islamists attacked New York, the financial system crashed, the climate is threatened by catastrophe and democracy lost some of its standing.	29th December 2009
The coming climate panic? When the psychology of in-your-face warming gets combined with a shocking climate event-something like Hurricane Katrina on steroids-you end up with a witches brew that can result in what political scientist Aristide Zolberg has referred to as "moments of madness"-unique historical moments when society challenges conventional wisdom and new norms are forcibly-oftentimes disruptively-created. There are many historical precedents: the economic and political chaos in Weimar Germany that ultimately led to the rise of Hitler, the violence of the French Revolution, the sudden, peaceful collapse of the Soviet empire.	29th December 2009
Plants and animals race for survival as climate change creeps across the globe Lowland tropics, mangroves and deserts at greater risk than mountainous areas as global warming spreads, study findsGlobal warming creeps across the world at a speed of a quarter of a mile each year, according to a new study that highlights the problems that rising temperatures pose to plants and animals. Species that can tolerate only a narrow range of temperatures will need to move as quickly if they are to survive. Wildlife in lowland tropics, mangroves and desert areas are at greater risk than species in mountainous areas, the study suggests."These are the conditions that will set the stage, whether species move or cope in place," said Chris Field, director of the department of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution in the US, who worked on the project.	29th December 2009
Mini Hockey Sticks - 3 Yet another vindication for Michael Mann's work on the legendary Hockey Stick comes from an analysis of global warming by decade from the World Meteorological Organisation. Alongside this, some of the research from sea floor sediment drilling has now been published, and it should make you sit up and pay attention. The key issue in Global Warming Science is Climate Sensitivity , and that's not a measure of how prickly you are when someone wants to talk to you about how Climate Change is one big hoax. It is essentially defined by the results of research that look into how the Earth would respond to a doubling of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere.	29th December 2009
The long view How climate has shaped human history	29th December 2009
The History of Climate Denial Funding Follow the money : take a peek behind the Climate Change Denier-Sceptic propaganda theatre stage curtain and you will find large Fossil Fuel interests offering financial resources to unseat the Climate Change Science. Ross Gelbspan calls this a manufactured campaign , and lays some of the obligations for rooting it out on those who work in the Media. We may already be witnessing runaway Climate Change is his conclusion on the consequences of 20 years of delay in setting effective policy. Virtually no group in society escapes Gelbspan's probing gaze.	29th December 2009
Updates to model-data comparisons It's worth going back every so often to see how projections made back in the day are shaping up. As we get to the end of another year, we can update all of the graphs of annual means with another single datapoint. Statistically this isn t hugely important, but people seem interested, so why not? For example, here is an update of the graph showing the annual mean anomalies from the IPCC AR4 models plotted against the surface temperature records from the HadCRUT3v and GISTEMP products (it really doesn t matter which). Everything has been baselined to 1980-1999 (as in the 2007 IPCC report) and the envelope in grey encloses 95% of the model runs.	29th December 2009
Philip Radford: Carbon Price Drops Are True Signal That Copenhagen Was a Cop-Out - The Huffington Post Obama's speech said three things: hey foreign leaders, we don't want foreign oil; hey China, even though we've been negotiating all year well, I'm going to scold you; and hey world: even though these are negotiations, I have nothing to offer. See also: Stocks Rise, Bonds Drop on Economic Recovery; Carbon Declines - Bloomberg Low carbon price threatens investment crucial to meet UK green goals	23rd December 2009
Requiem for a Crowded Planet This is what the failure of the climate talks means.	23rd December 2009
Looking for a Silver Lining in the Post-Summit Landscape Much was left undone in Copenhagen, and the many loopholes in the climate accord could lead to rising emissions. But the conference averted disaster by keeping the UN climate negotiations alive, and some expressed hope that the growth of renewable energy technology may ultimately save the day. BY FRED PEARCE	23rd December 2009
Copenhagen's failure belongs to Obama The American president has been uniquely placed to lead the world on climate change and squandered every opportunityContrary to countless reports, the debacle in Copenhagen was not everyone's fault. It did not happen because human beings are incapable of agreeing, or are inherently self-destructive. Nor was it all was China's fault, or the fault of the hapless UN.There's plenty of blame to go around, but there was one country that possessed unique power to change the game. It didn't use it. If Barack Obama had come to Copenhagen with a transformative and inspiring commitment to getting the US economy off fossil fuels, all the other major emitters would have stepped up.	23rd December 2009
Copenhagen: Historic Failure That Will Live in Infamy There is nothing in this deal that would persuade an energy utility that the era of dirty coal is over. And the implications for humanity of that simple fact are profound.	23rd December 2009
Taking Responsibility for the Climate Crisis The unnatural dominant culture, coldly spewing its noise and heat, subjecting us to dirty machines and pavement, no longer makes sense in terms of our needs as humans. But don't let it get you down and make you give up. Play your guitar, enjoy the company of friends, or whatever else restores your humanity. Perhaps the songs and the conversations will lead to some liberation and justice, alleviating the pain of this senseless system running our lives into the ground. But we must do even more. Finding a "better job" is no solution long-term, however much we think we need money to survive.	23rd December 2009

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ACTION: 10:10 - 10% of emissions by 2010 Please join 10:10 today. By committing to cut your emissions by 10% in 2010, you will join thousanfont-ds of individuals, schools, hospitals, businesses and organisations all actively helping to combat climate change by making simple changes to their lifestyles, homes and workplaces. More importantly, your voice will help to put pressure on the politicians to cut Britain’s emissions as quickly as the science demands. If we in the UK can prove that fast, deep cuts can be made at a national level, then we may just inspire all the other big polluting countries to follow suit.

STICKY: Why politicians dare not limit economic growth - New Scientist Visceral fear is not without foundation. If we do not go out shopping, then factories stop producing, and if factories stop producing then people get laid off. If people get laid off, then they do not have any money. And if they don't have any money they cannot go shopping. A falling economy has no money in the public purse and no way to service public debt. It struggles to maintain competitiveness and it puts people's jobs at risk. A government that fails to respond appropriately will soon find itself out of office. This is the logic of free-market capitalism: the economy must grow continuously or face an unpalatable collapse. With the environmental situation reaching crisis point, however, it is time to stop pretending that mindlessly chasing economic growth is compatible with sustainability. We need something more robust than a comfort blanket to protect us from the damage we are wreaking on the planet. Figuring out an alternative to this doomed model is now a priority before a global recession, an unstable climate, or a combination of the two forces itself upon us.

ACTION: 350.org If we don't get our Co2 level down to 350 parts per million we're all going to be toast. Bill McKibben of Step It Up wants this magic number to be imprinted, implanted, implaneted and indelibly fused into the minds of everyone on this planet. If you're on side visit www.350.org

The Climate Safety report is now available for free download from :- http://www.climatesafety.org http://climatesafety.org/downloads/climatesafety.pdf

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