Another week of GW news - December 24, 2006

(Courtesy of H.E.Taylor, here is this week's GW news roundup
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The big story of the week is political -- the EU carbon taxing airlines:

• 2006/12/21: TruthOut: Europe Acts to Penalize Jet Pollution
• 2006/12/21: GristMill: Fly swatter [EU airlines & CO2]
• 2006/12/20: TerraDaily: EU Proposes CO2 Emission Quotas For Airlines
• 2006/12/20: TerraDaily: IATA Gives Cautious Welcome To EU Emissions Trading Plan
• 2006/12/22: PlanetArk: Aviation's Contribution to Climate Change
• 2006/12/22: PlanetArk: EU Adopts Plan to Put Aviation in Emissions Scheme
• 2006/12/22: PlanetArk: ANALYSIS - Airlines to Embrace Carbon Market, not Taxes
• 2006/12/20: OilChange: Airlines Will Make 2.7 Billion Pounds From EU ETS Scheme
• 2006/12/21: Guardian(UK): Europe to include airlines in battle on climate change - Flights to be covered by EU carbon trading scheme
• 2006/12/21: Guardian(UK): What is the environmental cost of flying?
• 2006/12/19: EUO: EU aviation emissions plan softened
• 2006/12/20: ABC(Au): EU to add airlines to emissions scheme
• 2006/12/20: PhysOrg: EU proposes CO2 emission quotas for airlines
• 2006/12/20: BBerg: Europe Says All Airlines to Trade Emissions in 2012
• 2006/12/20: Guardian(UK): Greens attack EU's 'weak' flight emissions trading plan
• 2006/12/20: IHT: EU to include airlines in carbon trading program
• 2006/12/20: PlanetArk: EU's Dimas Confirms Change in Aviation CO2 Plan [ie soften a plan to include aviation in the EU ETS]
• 2006/12/20: BBC: Europe's airlines may soon have limits set on the amount of greenhouse gases which they can emit
• 2006/12/19: NewScientist: European airlines to trade emissions allowances
• 2006/12/19: Guardian(UK): Ministers know emissions trading is a red herring and won't work
  Inter-industry carbon shuffling and optimistic figures mask the true extent of envionmental damage caused by flying
• 2006/12/18: BBC: Carbon moves 'may boost airlines'
  Airlines could reap billions of pounds in profits if emissions from planes are included in the European Trading Scheme (ETS), say two reports. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) respectively estimate airlines could make up to £2.7bn and £3.5bn. The reports say airlines could benefit by passing emission costs to consumers.

In the hurricane wars:

Click here to read more

• 2006/12/19: CCM: Massive Storm in the South Indian Basin [Bondo]
• 2006/12/22: Wunderground: Last tropical cyclone of the year? [Bondo]
• 2006/12/21: ERabett: RTFR...the WHOLE FR...[WMO, hurricanes, etc]

This is more human interest than science or news:

• 2006/12/22: Wunderground: The hurricane shrine of Key West

The Stern Review is still getting bounced around:

• 2006/12/19: JQuiggin: Reviewing the Stern Review, again
• 2006/12/20: ERabett: Quiggen on Stern...
• 2006/12/19: CrTimber: Reviewing the Stern Review, again
• 2006/12/19: ERabett: Tol's revenge, or Gordon is brown...[Stern]
• 2006/12/19: Stoat: Yet more Stern sh*t*
• 2006/12/18: BDL: Do Unto Others...John Quiggin and Hal Varian are discussing the Stern Review...

People just can't resist commenting on the unreleased AR4:

• 2006/12/19: TreeHugger: Convenient Truths: New IPCC Report Downgrades (But Doesn't Dismiss) Human Climate Impact

Meanwhile glaciers are melting:

• 2006/12/22: PhysOrg: Indian, Chinese Team to Map [Himalayan] Glacier Melt
• 2006/12/21: SciDaily: Glaciers Adding More To Global Sea Rise Than Ice Sheets, Says Study
• 2006/12/21: BBC: India and China have agreed to send an expedition to the Himalayas to study the impact that global warming is having on glaciers there.
• 2006/12/18: MoscowTimes: Equatorial Glaciers Are Quickly Melting Away

And in near earth orbit:

• 2006/12/21: SciDaily: Microsatellites To Study Earth's Atmosphere From Low Orbit [Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment Risk Reduction (ANDERR)]

While in the Antarctic:

• 2006/12/24: SciDaily: Tidal Motion Influences Antarctic Ice Sheet
• 2006/12/20: Eureka: Tidal motion influences [the flow of] Antarctic ice sheet

More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2006/12/22: PNT: Signs of the Post-Normal Times
• 2006/12/22: CBC: Delayed winter allows construction industry to flourish
• 2006/12/23: NYT: In Shirt-Sleeve Holiday Season, Overcoats Linger on the Racks
  The glut of winter wear has sent a chill through the executive suites of major retailers, who count on big profits from coats in the crucial holiday shopping season. They are even starting to grumble about the first "global warming Christmas."
• 2006/12/24: Hindu: Asian, Pacific countries must adopt 'green growth' patterns
• 2006/12/24: Independent(UK): Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island
  For the first time, an inhabited island [Lohachara] has disappeared beneath rising seas. Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth.
• 2006/12/20: Guardian(UK): Warming seas drive shoreline species north - Study shows climate change effect on UK coast
• 2006/12/21: CSM: Nature responds to warming signs - Some insects and microscopic organisms have already shifted their behavior in response to the changing climate.
• 2006/12/21: ABC(Au): Dry forces cancellation of duck hunting season
• 2006/12/22: PhysOrg: Bears not sleeping during warm winter
• 2006/12/22: SciDaily: Extreme Autumn Temperatures Cause Unseasonable Flowering In The Netherlands
• 2006/12/22: CDreams: IPS: Oceans Warming and Rising
• 2006/12/21: CDreams: Independent(UK): Climate Change vs Mother Nature: Scientists Reveal That Bears Have Stopped Hibernating
• 2006/12/21: Independent(UK): Climate Change vs Mother Nature: Scientists reveal that bears have stopped hibernating [in the mountains of northern Spain]
• 2006/12/20: BBC: Climate shifts small UK sea life - Britain's barnacles, limpets and seaweeds are moving north and east in response to climate change
• 2006/12/20: WaPo: In Balmy Europe, Feverish Choruses of 'Let It Snow'
• 2006/12/20: CSM: Climate change clash in Africa - Uganda's Karimojong herders are the latest example of how global warming contributes to increased fighting.
• 2006/12/20: CDreams: Guardian(UK): Warming Seas Drive Shoreline Species North
• 2006/12/20: WaPo: Washington Warming to Southern Plants
• 2006/12/19: Reuters: Some European birds delay migration due to warmth
• 2006/12/19: Eureka: Climate change has surprising effect on endangered naked carp [metabolic rate]

Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2006/12/21: CBC: Latest B.C. storm leaves thousands more without power
• 2006/12/18: CBC: 2 dead in B.C. in aftermath of windstorm
• 2006/12/18: STimes: Thousands in region bracing for fifth night without power

And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2006/12/24: Hindu: Floods kill more than 70 in Sumatra
• 2006/12/24: AFP: Some 70 dead, 200,000 homeless in Asia floods [through parts of Indonesia and Malaysia in the past week]
• 2006/12/22: PlanetArk: Floods Hit South Malaysia, 30,000 Flee Homes -- heaviest rains in 100 years
• 2006/12/22: PlanetArk: First Drought, Now Floods Plague Kenya's Nomads
• 2006/12/21: WSWS: Chronic drought conditions create hardship in Australian rural areas
• 2006/12/20: TP: Bush and Inhofe's Home States Scorched By Wildfires And Droughts
• 2006/12/19: CliProg: Australia Facing Worst Drought for 1000 Years

The troubling matter of falling food production is not going away:

• 2006/12/22: IPSNews: Energy-China: Biofuels Eating Into Food Grain Stocks
• 2006/12/20: CanWest: Will automobiles compete with consumers for food?
• 2006/12/20: CDreams: IPS: Biofuels Eating Into Food Grain Stocks
• 2006/12/20: CCurrents: Eating The Planet Like A Bag Of Doritos For Jesus

Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2006/12/23: Scotsman: Recycling cuts carbon by up to 15m tonnes
• 2006/12/21: DeSmogBlog: Spread the light and offset your Christmas carbon
• 2006/12/22: WorldChanging: Preparing for Life in a Warming World
• 2006/12/22: WorldChanging: Zero-carbon building in the UK
• 2006/12/20: TreeHugger: Cutting Carbon Emissions
• 2006/12/19: BostonGlobe: Environmental group offers roadmap to curb global warming

How about 35 million years of climate proxy?:

• 2006/12/22: PhysOrg: New Antarctic Drilling Record to Yield Major Climate Data
  The Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) Program drilled to a new record depth of 1,000 meters below the seafloor from the site on the Ross Ice Shelf near Scott Base in Antarctica on Dec. 16, making ANDRILL the most successful Antarctic drilling program in terms of depth and rock core recovered. The crew hopes to reach 1,200 meters by Christmas, as they seek data that will illuminate how the Antarctic has responded to and shaped 35 million years of climate.
• 2006/12/21: PhysOrg: Researchers identify a 'heartbeat' in Earth's climate
• 2006/12/18: PlanetArk: Scientists Drill Back in Time in Antarctica [ANDRILL]

Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2006/12/22: Arxiv: Can we believe in high climate sensitivity? by J. D. Annan & J. C. Hargreaves
• 2006/12/20: CPD: Application of sediment core modelling to understanding climates of the past: An example from glacial-interglacial changes in Southern Ocean silica cycling by A. Ridgwell
• 2006/12/19: PNAS: Atmospheric nitrogen deposition promotes carbon loss from peat bogs by Luca Bragazza et al.
• 2006/12/19: PNAS: Forest fire increases mercury accumulation by fishes via food web restructuring and increased mercury inputs by Erin N. Kelly et al.
• 2006/12/19: PNAS: Aboveground sink strength in forests controls the allocation of carbon below ground and its [CO2]-induced enhancement by Sari Palmroth et al.
• 2006/12/19: PNAS: Canopy leaf area constrains [CO2]-induced enhancement of productivity and partitioning among aboveground carbon pools by Heather R. McCarthy et al.

The Pielke fan club is in fine fettle:

• 2006/12/19: ERabett: Oh how fair he likes to appear to be...
• 2006/12/18: CliSci: The Relevance of Nonlinear Effects In the Climate System
• 2006/12/18: Stoat: The Irrelevance of Nonlinear Effects In the Climate System

The 'everything is different' theme has morphed into a year end story:

• 2006/12/20: Guardian(UK): The year the world woke up
  Climate change In 2006, the public, politicians and industry have all shown significant signs that tackling global warming is on the agenda after scientific studies showed the pace of change gathering speed.
• 2006/12/20: TruthOut: The Year the World Woke Up
• 2006/12/19: CDreams: IPS: The Climate Change Tipping Point?

As for the year end story proper:

• 2006/12/19: GristMill: [Dessler] Top 10 climate stories of 2006: Part II
• 2006/12/17: GristMill: [Dessler] Top 10 climate stories of 2006: Part I

While on the Kyoto front:

• 2006/12/22: ABC(Au): King Island [Tasmania] to sign Kyoto protocol

And the emissions trading front:

• 2006/12/22: TheAge: Carbon pricing key to cutting energy use: study
• 2006/12/21: NYT: Outsize Profits, and Questions, in Effort to Cut Warming Gases
• 2006/12/20: BtP: Green House Gas Fraud [CDM: Clean Development Mechanism]
• 2006/12/20: Australian: Emissions trading within five years, say executives
  More than half of senior executives expect an emissions trading scheme in Australia within five years. A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 63 business leaders from 51 companies found every respondent viewed climate change as strategically significant to their organisation over the next five years. And 90 per cent of executives surveyed found that existing policies at all levels of government were marginal or ineffective in addressing climate change.
• 2006/12/19: TheAge: NZ looks at carbon trading market
• 2006/12/18: Register: Carbon offsetting: not such a quick fix after all - Saving planet more complex than planting a tree

And on the American political front:

• 2006/12/22: CSW: 24 House members call for new National Climate Impacts Assessment
• 2006/12/21: CliProg: Even More on the War on White Christmas
• 2006/12/22: LA Times: Green laws no slam-dunk in new Congress
• 2006/12/21: BostonGlobe: Making noise on global warming
• 2006/12/21: CDreams: BostonGlobe: Making Noise on Global Warming
• 2006/12/20: BDL: What Should We Be Doing About Global Climate Change?
• 2006/12/19: RasmussenReports: Americans Divided on Cause of Global Warming
• 2006/12/19: GristMill: New polling data on global warming...
• 2006/12/18: Grist: Inuit All Along - Inuit climate petition against U.S. is rejected

People may be disappointed by the incoming Democrats:

• 2006/12/22: HuffPo: Dingell wary
  Democratic ascension in Congress has raised hope for substantive action on global warming and energy security. But the outlook is not entirely rosy.
• 2006/12/20: Grist: Dingell Minded
• House Committee on Resources view of EarthDay

The politicization of science theme is still around:

• 2006/12/24: CSW: 10,600 scientists have signed statement condemning Administration political interference in science
• 2006/12/22: GristMill: [Dessler] What does 'politicization of science' mean to you?

This is liable to warm things up for the Republicans:

• 2006/12/23: WaPo: Schwarzenegger Remakes Himself as Environmentalist - Governor Challenges GOP on Global Warming

The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2006/12/24: PhiladelphiaInquirer: 'An Inconvenient Truth' -- The debate belongs in the classroom
• 2006/12/21: HuffPo: Al Gore: The Voice Of Reality, 2006
• 2006/12/: AlGore: Help me send a message to Congress: Now is the time to act on global warming.
• 2006/12/18: GristMill: Time for Gore

Automobile manufacturers are in court:

• 2006/12/19: TerraDaily: US Car Manufacturers Hit Back At Environmental Damages Claim
• 2006/12/18: TruthOut: Carmakers Fight Global Warming Lawsuit

Meanwhile in Europe:

• 2006/12/19: PlanetArk: Italy Presenting New CO2 Emission Plan to Brussels
• 2006/12/19: PlanetArk: EU Won't Haggle With Germany over CO2 Limits - Dimas
• 2006/12/19: PlanetArk: EU Environment Chief [Stavros Dimas] Seeks 30 Percent Emissions Cut
• 2006/12/18: BBC: European environment ministers have warned that the pace of international negotiations on climate change need to be "accelerated considerably" in 2007

And in Australia:

• 2006/12/23: TheAge: Climate set to go from bad to worse
• 2006/12/24: BBC: Australia ponders climate future
  Parts of Australia are in the grip of the worst drought in memory.

  Rainfall in many eastern and southern regions has been at near record lows.

  On top of that, the weather has been exceptionally warm. The parched

  conditions have sparked an emotional debate about global warming.

  Conservationists insist the "big dry" is almost certainly the result

  of climate change and warn that Australia is on the brink of

  environmental disaster. Other experts believe such hysteria is wildly

  misplaced and that the country shouldn't panic.

• 2006/12/20: PlanetArk: Australian [Canberra 2003] Fire Report Released as Bushfires Burn
• 2006/12/20: ABC(Au): Rise in greenhouse gas emissions predicted [by Australian Greenhouse Office]
• 2006/12/19: PlanetArk: Australian Fires Kill Thousands of Native Animals
• 2006/12/18: ABC(Au): PM [John Howard] dismisses climate change bushfire claims [that he is in denial about the effect of climate change on bushfires]
• 2006/12/20: ABC(Au): Scientists say rainfall-vegetation link may be drought breaker [cloud formation affected by vegetation growing on the land below]

Some of these Aussies have a nice turn of phrase:

• 2006/12/22: ClimateArk: Australia: Minister's backflip on wind farm
  THE long-running saga of the orange-bellied parrot and the Bald Hills wind farm has ended with Environment Minister Ian Campbell overturning his controversial decision to block the $220 million project.
  The reversal was variously hailed as a "humiliating backdown" by the Federal Opposition, a victory by the Victorian Government, a vindication by the developer, regrettable by the anti-wind farm Coastal Guardians and a "real blow" by the local federal MP, Liberal Russell Broadbent.
  State Planning Minister Justin Madden said: "It is a case of a yellow-bellied minister trying to save an orange-bellied parrot."

Canada gets a well deserved rap on the knuckles:

• 2006/12/22: NewScientist: Editorial: Canada faces the wrong way on climate change
• 2006/12/19: DeSmogBlog: New Scientist slams Canada's inaction

Now Harper is saying how important the environment is; as for what he does...:

• 2006/12/20: DeSmogBlog: Canada's PM: science is in, action needed on global warming

As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2006/12/21: CSW: CSW letter to the Wall Street Journal
• 2006/12/21: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Planting trees is far from pointless
• 2006/12/18: CliProg: The Media Blows the Extreme Weather Story -- Again

Developing a new energy infrastructure is the fundamental challenge of

the current generation:

• 2006/12/23: GristMill: Oh, jeeze, not another ethanol post...
• 2006/12/24: TEB: Nevada on-track to be producing over 1000 MW of geothermal power
• 2006/12/22: REA: SolarWorld AG to Double Wafer Production Capacity [to 500 MW within the next 28 months]
• 2006/12/22: TruthOut: Southern California Edison Signs Biggest US Wind Contract
• 2006/12/21: Renew(Wisc): Climate Policy Could Hinder Renewable Energy
• 2006/12/20: PlanetArk: Sanyo to Spend Y19 Billion to Boost Solar Cell Capacity [annual capacity to increase to 350 mwatts]
• 2006/12/20: PlanetArk: EU New Joiners to Get Biofuel Crop [subsidy] Cash from 2007
• 2006/12/19: TomPaine: Renewable Energy: How It Will Happen
• 2006/12/18: DailyIndia: Delhi offers incentives for use of solar water heaters
• 2006/12/19: GristMill: Old King Coal is a tricky old soul [California has moved to curb the spread of coal-fired power plants.]
• 2006/12/19: PlanetArk: Two Big UK Offshore Wind Farms Get Central Government OK [1,000 megawatt London Array & 300-MW Thanet]
• 2006/12/18: GristMill: 95% of our grid electricity from wind at market prices near fossil fuels?
• 2006/12/18: BBC: Offshore wind farms get go-ahead
  The green light has been given for two offshore wind farms in the Thames Estuary, one of which will be the world's biggest when it is completed.

Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2006/12/21: BaltimoreSun: Insurer to limit policies in state - Allstate won't write new homeowners on water as storm risk moves north
• 2006/12/22: WaPo:Checkout: Global Warming Ate My Insurance Policy
  Allstate plans to stop offering property insurance in nearly a dozen counties along the Chesapeake Bay starting in February. The reason: the increased risk of hurricane damage due to rising ocean temperatures, possibly caused by global warming.

Although reinsureres are happy about 2006 & hurricanes:

• 2006/12/22: PlanetArk: Insurers Come off Cheap as Few Disasters Mar 2006
• 2006/12/22: Telegraph(UK): Hurricanes hardly happened, so it's a good year for the insurers

The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2006/12/22: DeSmogBlog: Denier Specialist Solomon Offers up Careful Culling of "Science"
• 2006/12/23: DeSmogBlog: ("Welcome?) Revisionism Among Canadian Conservatives
• 2006/12/21: NewsHounds: If Global Warming Makes it More Convenient for People to Shop, Bring it On
• 2006/12/23: CSW: Harvard Prof. Daniel Schrag on Senator Inhofe's "gathering of liars and charlatans"
• 2006/12/19: BSD: Peiser's anti-global warming list is off to a bad start
• 2006/12/20: GRachman: Climate change, a heated debate [Monckton]
• 2006/12/20: DeSmogBlog: "Denier:" A Remedial Class in Definition
• 2006/12/19: CliProg: Drought and Wildfires Singe Inhofe's Backyard
• 2006/12/18: CrTimber: Business opportunity for warming denialists
• 2006/12/19: DeSmogBlog: A skeptics guide to the "Medieval Warming Period"
• 2006/12/19: Stoat: Challenging the sceptics
• 2006/12/18: DeSmogBlog: Monckton fights for Exxon's freedom of speech
• 2006/12/17: CDreams: BostonGlobe: On a Swift Boat to a Warmer World [MMorano]

It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this:

• 2006/12/24: Guardian(UK): Climate change sceptics issued with challenge
  Britain's leading climate scientist has challenged those who question the impact of the human population on global warming to defend their claims that car and factory emissions of carbon dioxide are not heating up the planet.
  Alan Thorpe, chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council, said yesterday he planned to defeat so-called 'deniers', first on-line and later at a public debate.
  'We need, very urgently, to discuss what to do now to mitigate the effects of climate change,' he said. 'Yet a handful of scientists, politicians and writers are still claiming humans are not responsible at all. We have got to kill off this notion so we can get on with the real work: protecting ourselves from future climate change. That is why I am challenging these deniers. I want them to outline their case so that it can be judged by scientists. That is something these people have been reluctant to do so far.'

Coby Beck is continuing to post his excellent "How to Talk to a Global Warming Sceptic" series on GristMill:

• 2006/12/23: GristMill: 'We are just recovering from the LIA'
• 2006/12/23: GristMill: 'The CO2 rise is natural'
• 2006/12/22: GristMill: 'Natural emissions dwarf human emissions'
• 2006/12/21: GristMill: 'Climate is always changing'
• 2006/12/20: GristMill: 'The null hypothesis says global warming is natural'
• 2006/12/20: GristMill: 'Volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans'
• 2006/12/19: GristMill: 'Mars and Pluto are warming too'
• 2006/12/18: GristMill: 'Current global warming is just part of a natural cycle'
• 2006/12/18: GristMill: 'Vineland was full of grapes'
• 2006/12/18: AFTIC: We Are Just Recovering From the LIA

Then there was the usual news and commentary:

• 2006/12/23: PeakEnergy: Peak Oil. Global Warming. Viridian Solutions
• 2006/12/22: Deltoid: On Politicization of Science
• 2006/12/22: DeSmogBlog: The Consensus Trap
• 2006/12/24: Guardian(UK): More than just hot air
• 2006/12/20: Guardian(UK): Profit and losses
• 2006/12/22: CliProg: The Climate Gift that, Perversely, Keeps on Giving
• 2006/12/21: ERabett: A worthy successor to Jib Jab for the holidays Christmas...
• 2006/12/22: RealClimate: Not just ice albedo
• 2006/12/20: BoingBoing: Free copies of "An Inconvenient Truth" for educators
• 2006/12/20: TruthOut: Crisis and Opportunity
• 2006/12/17: TheAge: Make the polluter pay
• 2006/12/19: Reuters: Spain set for warmest year on record
• 2006/12/19: Reuters: Warmth seen lingering into early January

And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:

• ParticipateNet: An Inconvenient Truth DVD Giveaway for Teachers Entry Form
• TreeHugger
• Head in a Cloud - Troposphere and Stratosphere meet Blogosphere
• CCN: Climate Change News
• Climate Justice - enforcing climate change law
• True Cost Economics
• 2006/07/18: ISIS: Global Warming Is Happening
• The Canary Project
• ET: Earth Times
• P&P: People & Planet (Net)
• CCC: California Climate Change
• SPGCC: Science and politics of global climate change
• GRACE: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
• NuclearInfoNet: Everything you want to know about Nuclear Power.
• EEE: Ecological Economics Encyclopaedia

--regards--

-het

PS. You can access the previous postings of this series here

--

"Every time history repeats itself, the price goes up." -stolen .sig

Global Warming: http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/enviro/globalwarming.html

GW News: http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/enviro/gwnews.html

GW News Archive: http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/enviro/gwna.html

H.E. Taylor http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/