Another week of GW news - February 25, 2007

Courtesy of H.E.Taylor, here is this week's GW news roundup
(skip to bottom)

• Top Stories, Hurricane Wars, GHG Stats, The Temperature Record, Glaciers, Sea Levels, el Niño, Satellites
• Impacts, Tropical Rainforests, Floods & Droughts, Biofuel & Food
• Mitigation, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Misc. Science
• Kyoto, Kyoto-2, Carbon Tax, Carbon Trade,
• Politics, American, British, European, Australian, Asian, Canadian
• Ecological Economics, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Business, Carbon Lobby
• The Usual, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion
• .sig

Click here to read more

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Here's a chuckle for ya:

• 2007/02/20: ERabett: (cartoon -McCall/Rabett) The Mansion the Freds Built...

  FPIF did a series on reactions to the GW problem:

• 2007/02/20: FPIF: Global Warming: The Quick Fix Is In
• 2007/02/21: FPIF: The Inconvenient Truth, Part II
• 2007/02/21: FPIF: Climate Change: Is It Prudent to Wait?
• 2007/02/22: FPIF: Step It Up

  The US NAS released a Colorado River report:

• 2007/02/23: JFleck: Report on Nothing Terribly New
• 2007/02/22: PhysOrg: Colorado River Basin vulnerable to drought
• 2007/02/22: RMN: Warming report predicts cost hikes - Global warming could reduce river flows, a panel said Wednesday.
• 2007/02/22: ClimateArk: That "Drought" in Southwest May Be Normal, [NAS Colorado River] Report Says
• 2007/02/21: JFleck: A Gloomy Water Future - The NAS Colorado River report was released this morning

  The Global Roundtable on Climate Change [GROCC] released a report:

• 2007/02/22: NEN: Global Roundtable Wants Caps
• 2007/02/22: SwissInfo: Swiss Re signs climate change pact [GROCC]
• 2007/02/21: CBC: Industry group announces climate change plan
  Global warming should be tackled without slowing economic growth, more than 100 corporate leaders, international organizations and experts agreed in a formal statement after a Tuesday meeting of the Global Roundtable on Climate Change.
• 2007/02/20: GROCC: The Path to Climate Sustainability: A Joint Statement by the Global Roundtable on Climate Change
• GROCC: The Global Roundtable on Climate Change
• 2007/02/20: BBC: Business calls for carbon targets
  An international grouping of corporate leaders has called on governments to take more action on climate change. The Global Roundtable on Climate Change, which includes more than 80 big companies, says politicians need to agree new targets for carbon emissions. Targets should be "scientifically informed", they say, and lead to pricing carbon in a global market as a route to cutting emissions.

Several articles have highlighted the state of the oceans:

• 2007/02/23: PlanetArk: Southern Ocean Being "Strangled" by Greenhouse Gases
• 2007/02/23: CanWest: Warming oceans contain less oxygen for fish, conference told - Some areas seeing 'dead zones' of excessive nitrogen, limited oxygen
• 2007/02/23: CBC: Climate change, cod decline, changing life in Atlantic: oceanographer
• 2007/02/22: Reuters: Southern Ocean being "strangled" by greenhouse gases
• 2007/02/22: CDreams: IPS: Global Warming: South Pacific More Vulnerable Than Thought
• 2007/02/21: ABC(Au): Light shed on Southern Ocean climate change link

  Some late AAAS commentary:

• 2007/02/20: CSW: AAAS Board Statement: Climate change caused by human activities is a growing threat
• 2007/02/21: DeSmogBlog: Science group [AAAS] issues its first warning against climate-change threat
• 2007/02/20: GristMill: AAAS: front group for dirty hippies?
• 2007/02/18: AAAS: AAAS Board Releases New Statement on Climate Change
• 2007/02/19: PhysOrg: Science Group [AAAS]: Warming a Mounting Threat [the first consensus statement of the board]
• AAAS: Global Climate-Change Resources
• 2007/02/19: Eureka: Scientists will discuss creating a culture of sustainability February 19 at AAAS
• 2007/02/18: Eureka: AAAS releases video and first board consensus statement on climate change
• 2007/02/19: CTV: Climate change 'growing threat to society': AAAS [consensus statement of the board]
• 2007/02/18: EnergyBulletin: AAAS president urges swift action to build a sustainable future

  Some late Stern commentary:

• 2007/02/25: Times(UK): Stern takes the heat on cost of saving the world
  The British mandarin behind a gloomy report on climate change has had to run a gauntlet of American economists...
• 2007/02/23: JQuiggin: Discounting the future, yet again
• 2007/02/22: DeSmogBlog: Stern Responses Show Economics as a Form of Brain Damage
• 2007/02/22: CSM: How fast must we act on global warming? Despite broad agreement on climate change, economists are divided over how quickly to implement solutions.
• 2007/02/20: CSM: Price tags for fixing global warming - For economists, Sir Nicholas Stern's report is only a start for calculating the real cost of solutions -- and of neglect
• 2007/02/21: EnvEcon: Stern vs Nordhaus et al. at Yale
• 2007/02/20: FramingScience: In Toronto, Former World Bank Official Delivers a Different Kind of Economic Framing on Climate Change
• 2007/02/20: TreeHugger: Sir Nicholas Stern Wows Bay Street

  And in other economics:

• 2007/02/20: HuffPo: Unwise Investment: Why are Citibank, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch Funding Dirty Power?
• 2007/02/21: Chosun: The Changing Climate on Climate Change by Joseph E. Stiglitz
• 2007/02/21: NYT: A Battle Over the Costs of Global Warming
• 2007/02/19: ABC(US): Scientist Says We Must Try Our Best Against Warming - World Bank's Head Scientist [Robert Watson] Says Society May Have to Face Hardships

  Some late commentary on Branson's $25 million prize:

• 2007/02/19: EnergyBulletin: Virgin, the dynamo, and the [US$25 million] prize
• 2007/02/19: RealClimate: Save the World! Earn $25 million!

  Some late IPCC commentary:

• 2007/02/25: JEB: NewScientist slams "misleading" IPCC [for conservative estimates]

  Meanwhile GHGs are still going up:

• 2007/02/22: EnvEcon: EPA releases U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Report)
• 2007/02/20: EPA: EPA Seeks Public Comment on U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory
• 2007/02/20: FuturePundit: Livestock Do More Global Warming Than Transportation
• 2007/02/20: CSM: Humans' beef with livestock: a warmer planet
• 2007/02/19: NewScientist: Greenhouse gases hit new high

  And in the hurricane wars:

• 2007/02/22: BSD: Part 2: Legal theories of causation, hurricanes, and climate change
• 2007/02/23: PlanetArk: Powerful Cyclone Hits Flood-Ravaged Mozambique
• 2007/02/23: MBO: Expert [Chris Landsea] disputes storms' link to global warming
• 2007/02/22: BBC: Cyclone Favio strikes Mozambique
• 2007/02/21: BSD: Legal theories of causation, hurricanes, and climate change
• 2007/02/21: BBC: Fear as cyclone [Favio] nears Mozambique

  The temperature records continue:

• 2007/02/20: TerraDaily: 2006 Was China's Hottest Year In A Half-Century
• 2007/02/20: TerraDaily: January Sees Warmest Temps Ever As India Gets Biggest Snowfall In Decades

  The ozone layer is still under threat:

• 2007/02/22: IHT: Cool rooms in Asia warming the planet [ozone layer]

  While on the el Niño front:

• 2007/02/22: TerraDaily: Australia Declares El Nino Weather Pattern Over
• 2007/02/22: ABC(Au): El Nino declared over [by Australian Bureau of Meteorology]

  Real Climate highlighted aerosols:

• 2007/02/21: RealClimate: Aerosols: The Last Frontier?
• 2007/02/25: SciDaily: Insides Of Clouds May Be The Key To Climate Change

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2007/02/24: Globe&Mail: Climate could sap sweetness from spring
• 2007/02/25: ClimateArk: Global warming: enough to make you sick
  Rising temperatures are redistributing bacteria, insects and plants, exposing people to diseases they'd never encountered before.
• 2007/02/23: DNAIndia: Himalayas affected by global warming: study
• 2007/02/23: ABC(Au): Climate change may be causing wheat rust to spread
• 2007/02/22: PhysOrg: Experts: Warming May Harm Tuscan Wines
• 2007/02/22: DeSmogBlog: Warming's Effects on Future Generations Shows Up Now!
• 2007/02/22: HeraldSun:Fever claim on global warming
  Global warming will take a toll on children's health, according to a new report showing hospital admissions for fever soar as days get hotter. The new study found that temperature rises had a significant impact on the number of pre-schoolers presenting to emergency departments for fever and gastroenteritis.
• 2007/02/19: PlanetArk: German Output May Plummet as World Warms - Study

  Is GW triggering ecological collapses?:

• 2007/02/23: Eureka: Northwest Atlantic Ocean ecosystems experiencing large climate-related changes - Research shows links between collapse of fisheries and bottom-living species
• 2007/02/22: Cornell: Warming climate, cod collapse, have combined to cause rapid North Atlantic ecosystem changes, says Cornell oceanographer
• 2007/02/21: NewScientist: Male turtle populations crashing in the heat
• 2007/02/20: PhysOrg: Scientists warn of climate change risk to marine turtles
• 2007/02/21: SciDaily: Scientists Warn Of Climate Change Risk To Marine Turtles

  And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2007/02/23: CNet: Global warming could make faucets run dry, expert says - If global warming persists, don't expect to take many long showers, Nobel Prize winner says.
• 2007/02/24: BBC: Bolivia head issues flood attack
  Bolivian President Evo Morales has said developed countries and their failure to combat climate change are responsible for weeks of flooding. The floods, reportedly the worst for more than 20 years, have killed nearly 40, with tens of thousands of people forced to abandon their homes. Mr Morales accused wealthy countries of ignoring the Kyoto Protocol which seeks to halt climate change.
• 2007/02/23: CliProg: Dawn of the Super-Interglacial Drought?
• 2007/02/23: PlanetArk: Bolivia Floods Isolate City and More Rain Expected
• 2007/02/21: BBC: Crisis talks over Bolivian floods - The Bolivian government has called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the floods in much of the country
• 2007/02/20: SciDaily: Better Freshwater Forecasts To Aid Drought-plagued West
• 2007/02/20: BBC: No end to deadly Bolivian floods
  At least 35 people have died and 10 are missing in Bolivia as a result of floods caused by months of heavy rain. Up to 340,000 people are estimated to have been affected, as water levels continue to rise in eastern areas.
• 2007/02/19: Guardian(UK): Zambesi flood makes 285,000 homeless [at least 30 dead]

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2007/02/20: Scotsman: Latin America prepares for prosperity, sparked by biofuel boom
• 2007/02/21: Globe&Mail: Farmland the new hot property - Demand for corn used in ethanol fuels price hikes outpacing N.Y. lofts

  And the troubling matter of falling food production is not going away:

• 2007/02/23: Globe&Mail: How global warming goes against the grain
  The place where most of the world's people could first begin to feel the consequences of global warming may come as a surprise: in the stomach, via the supper plate. That's the view of a small but influential group of agricultural experts who are increasingly worried that global warming will trigger food shortages long before it causes better known but more distant threats, such as rising sea levels that flood coastal cities.
• 2007/02/24: DeSmogBlog: Food Crops Will Be The First Casualties of Warming -- Experts
• 2007/02/20: TheAge: [Australian] Crop production worst in 20 years

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2007/02/22: TechRev: Capturing Carbon with Enzymes - A new process turns the greenhouse gas into useful materials
• 2007/02/23: TreeHugger: Canadian Company Testing Enzymatic CO2 Capture
• 2007/02/23: TEB: CO2 Capture with E. coli
• 2007/02/22: PhysOrg: Lower carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fueled power plants possible with technology development

  And on the carbon sequestration front:

• 2007/02/22: ABC(Au): Drilling starts in geosequestration project
• 2007/02/22: TheAge: Drilling for climate change answers
  One of the world's biggest trials to capture and bury carbon dioxide in the hope of slowing climate change has marked a milestone in south-western Victoria. Drilling has just begun on a 2.2-kilometre-deep well on a farm near Warrnambool, tapping into a depleted underground gas reserve. By around August, researchers from the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) hope to start injecting 100,000 tonnes of compressed carbon dioxide into the well, below several thick rock layers, and then seal it with a concrete cap.

While on the adaptation front:

• 2007/02/25: PhysOrg: Coastal Brits Fret About Climate Change
• 2007/02/25: JFleck: Adaptation [UK coast]
• 2007/02/24: Yahoo: Coastal Brits fret about climate change

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2007/02/22: CliPast: Multiproxy records of climate variability for Kamchatka for the past 400 years by O. Solomina et al.

  Before we get into politics, there was some science done:

• 2007/02/22: CanWest: Signs of life out there, disaster back here - Dumping of CO2 threatens oceans with massive extinction, scientist says
• 2007/02/23: Wunderground: Future abrupt loss of Arctic sea ice
• 2007/02/22: Stoat: The borehole mystery
• 2007/02/23: RealClimate: Climate Reporting in Physics World
• 2007/02/22: PhysOrg: Atlantic to Pacific feedback discovered
• 2007/02/21: NSU: Antarctic waterworks revealed - Large lakes in Antarctica speed up ice flow to the ocean
• 2007/02/21: NSU: A cloudy view of cloudiness - Moving satellites may have caused falling measurements of cloud cover
• 2007/02/21: BBC: Freeze 'condemned Neanderthals'
  A sharp freeze could have dealt the killer blow that finished off our evolutionary cousins the Neanderthals, according to a new study.
• 2007/02/21: ABC(Au): Outback dust may slow climate change: scientists [by stimulating phytoplankton growth in oceans]
• 2007/02/22: SciDaily: Researchers Examine Effects Of Global Warming On Antarctic
• 2007/02/22: SciDaily: Brighter Skies For Forecasting - Climate Scientists To Measure Impact Of Atmosphere Over Greenland And Iceland On Northern Europe's Weather
• 2007/02/21: Eureka: Lakes beneath Antarctic ice sheets found to initiate and sustain flow of ice to ocean
• 2007/02/20: TruthOut: Huge Lakes and Rivers Found Under Antarctic Ice
• 2007/02/20: Wunderground: Why Arctic sea ice is shrinking
• 2007/02/19: PhysOrg: Boreal ecosystems linkage is discovered [between spring and autumn temperature changes and the uptake and loss of CO2]
• 2007/02/19: Eureka: Scientists warn of climate change risk to marine turtles
• 2007/02/19: Eureka: White-knuckle atmospheric science takes flight
• 2007/02/18: Eureka: New evidence of the link between carbon dioxide emissions and climate change in boreal ecosystems
• 2007/02/18: Eureka: From icehouse to hothouse: Melting ice and rising CO2 caused climate shift [300 mya]
• 2007/02/19: Eureka: Riding the winds of change [Inuit & CC]
• 2007/02/19: OilChange: Melting of Ice-Caps "Inevitable"
• 2007/02/19: Guardian(UK): Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps

  The Pielkes fan club is propagating:

• 2007/02/19: GristMill: And you may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful house! [PFC]

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2007/02/21: TerraDaily: Russia, Kyoto Protocol And Climate Change

  And on the emissions trading front:

• 2007/02/19: WaPo: Barclays taps into demand for global carbon market

  The controversy over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets

  and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs is getting louder:

• 2007/02/25: TreeHugger: Carbon Neutral Myth? Protesters Take On Offset Companies
• 2007/02/23: GristMill: The carbon neutral myth
• 2007/02/20: EcoEcon: Carbon Offsets: Modern Day 'Indulgences'?
• 2007/02/21: Oikos: Does emissions trading spur innovation or hinder it?
• 2007/02/20: Oikos: "Why be carbon neutral when you can be carbon optimal?"
• 2007/02/20: DeSmogBlog: Enron-Type Accounting Used to Calculate "Carbon Offsets"
• 2007/02/21: BBC: Climate campaign targets offsets
  Climate campaigners have occupied the offices of one of Britain's leading carbon management companies to protest against carbon offsetting. London Rising Tide activists say offsetting, which sees firms pay for emissions cuts elsewhere rather than curbing their own emissions, is a scam. The group has occupied meeting space of the CarbonNeutral Company, formerly Future Forests, in central London.
• 2007/02/20: NYT: Guilt-Free Pollution. Or Is It? [carbon offsets]
• 2007/02/20: GristMill: More on carbon offsets
• 2007/02/20: GristMill: Carbon taxes vs. emissions trading: politics and other practical problems
• 2007/02/20: OilChange: Carbon Offset Companies Using Enron Style Accounting
• 2007/02/20: BBC: Carbon offsets 'harm environment'
  The current trend for "offsetting" carbon emissions by planting trees is doing more harm to the environment than good, MPs have been told. The public is being "seriously misled" by companies peddling carbon offset schemes, campaigner Jutta Kill told the environmental audit committee. The schemes did not reduce emissions and simply gave industry a "licence to pollute" elsewhere, she argued.
• 2007/02/19: GristMill: Emissions trading: A mixed record, with plenty of failures
• 2007/02/19: IHT: A growing number of companies are offering to offset 'carbon footprints'

  And the difficult question of aviation & GHG production is in the air:

• 2007/02/22: GristMill: What greens should do about air travel

  Another one of those everything is different now stories:

• 2007/02/23: KoreaHerald: The climate change revolution
  The world is in the midst of a great political transformation, in which climate change has moved to the center of national and global politics.

And on the American political front:

• 2007/02/24: SF Gate: Feinstein tactic on her first bill to affect climate -- start small
• 2007/02/24: GristMill: Arnie talks the talk
• 2007/02/23: TerraDaily: Global Warming Is Real But Not A Priority [US poll results]
• 2007/02/23: WaPo: A Conservative Conservationist? Why the Right Needs to Get Invested in the Search for Climate Change Solutions
• 2007/02/23: FTU: Global Warming: Common ground
• 2007/02/23: PlanetArk: Schwarzenegger, McCain Back [California] Low Carbon Fuel [Standard] for US
• 2007/02/23: CalifPR: California Senate Democrats Unveil "California First" Global Warming Bill Package
• 2007/02/23: CDreams: MiamiHerald: We Must Reverse Global Warming
• 2007/02/20: DeSmogBlog: New York urged to follow California in pushing Washington on global warming
• 2007/02/20: TruthOut: Why Americans Are Skeptical of Their Role in Global Warming
• 2007/02/20: Times(UK): Scientists unite to push Bush on climate
• 2007/02/19: PhysOrg: For US, global warming is now hot
• 2007/02/19: WaPo: Is U.S. near a tipping point on global warming?
• 2007/02/19: ClimateArk: Why Americans are Skeptical of Their Role in Global Warming
• 2007/02/19: PlanetArk: Is US Near a Tipping Point on Global Warming?
• 2007/02/18: Eureka: Public agrees global warming exists, but divided over seriousness of problem
• 2007/02/18: SciDaily: Americans Believe Global Warming Is Real, Want Action, But Not As A Priority

  Paul Krugman wrote a trenchant commentary on economic fatalism:

• 2007/02/23: Pottersville: Colorless Green Ideas by Paul Krugman
  The factual debate about whether global warming is real is, or at least should be, over. The question now is what to do about it.
  Aside from a few dead-enders on the political right, climate change skeptics seem to be making a seamless transition from denial to fatalism. In the past, they rejected the science. Now, with the scientific evidence pretty much irrefutable, they insist that it doesn't matter because any serious attempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions is politically and economically impossible.
  Behind this claim lies the assumption, explicit or implicit, that any substantial cut in energy use would require a drastic change in the way we live. To be fair, some people in the conservation movement seem to share that assumption.
  But the assumption is false. Let me tell you about a real-world counterexample: an advanced economy that has managed to combine rising living standards with a substantial decline in per capita energy consumption, and managed to keep total carbon dioxide emissions more or less flat for two decades, even as both its economy and its population grew rapidly. And it achieved all this without fundamentally changing a lifestyle centered on automobiles and single-family houses.
  The name of the economy? California.
• 2007/02/23: EnvEcon: Krugman on climate change

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2007/02/25: Tennessean: Gore, prophet of climate crisis, says Oscar bid helps
• 2007/02/22: CanWest: Business as usual is over, Gore warns
  Green crusader speaks in Montreal. Firms must adapt if they want to survive, former U.S. vice-president tells conference
• 2007/02/22: CDreams: TSun: Gore's Rock Star 'Buzz' Pushes Agenda - Former US Vice-President's Message on Climate Change Hitting Home in Canada, Experts Say
• 2007/02/21: CityNews: V.P.-Turned-Environmentalist Al Gore Creates Frenzy At U. Of T.
• 2007/02/21: Globe&Mail: World warms to a climate-crisis battler [Gore]

  While in the UK:

• 2007/02/23: BBC: Poles 'vital for climate science'
  Research in the polar regions has never been more important in the quest to understand impacts of climate change, according to the UK's Science [& Innovation] Minister [Malcolm Wicks] Urgent scientific effort in Antarctica was needed to assess the extent of global warming, Malcolm Wicks observed...during a visit to the British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) research station at Rothera.
• 2007/02/23: Independent(UK): Meacher puts climate at heart of left-wing challenge to Brown
• 2007/02/23: Times(UK): Miliband mocked by his critics as climate Bill is downgraded
• 2007/02/23: OilChange: UK Climate Bill Downgraded
• 2007/02/19: NewScientist: Top UK companies do not declare all carbon emissions
• 2007/02/18: Metro(UK): Britain's climate change cover-up
• 2007/02/19: BBC: Show 'hidden emissions', UK urged - Official greenhouse gas figures hugely underestimate Britain's contribution to climate change, a report concludes.

  And in Europe:

• 2007/02/21: OilChange: EU Agrees Binding Carbon Cuts
• 2007/02/21: Guardian(UK): EU promises 20% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020
• 2007/02/20: NewScientist: EU agrees to cut greenhouse emissions by 20%
• 2007/02/20: PhysOrg: EU Backs Target to Cut CO2 Emissions [20 percent by 2020]
• 2007/02/20: Yahoo: EU backs target to cut CO2 emissions
• 2007/02/20: BBC: EU reaches deal on emissions cuts
  EU environment ministers have agreed in principle to cut greenhouse emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020. The ministers, meeting in Brussels, also agreed to seek a 30% cut worldwide if matched by other developed nations. The proposals, outlined by the European Commission in January, are seen as a key measure to curb climate change.
• 2007/02/19: PlanetArk: EU States Tussle over Climate Change Goals
• 2007/02/18: BBC: 'Now or never' for climate action
  All EU nations must back proposals to cut harmful emissions by 30% by 2020 or risk jeopardising the global effort to curb climate change, warn ministers. The call for unity among the 27-nation bloc was made by the UK Environment Secretary, David Miliband, and his Spanish and Slovenian counterparts. Failure to act would threaten efforts to get nations such as the US and China to agree to cap emissions, they said. EU environment ministers will discuss the proposals at a meeting on Tuesday. In an article on the BBC News website, the ministers wrote: "We all know that the current Kyoto deal does not go far enough. "If we are going to avoid the dangerous impacts of climate change... then the EU must stand up and lead the debate on committing to further action."

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2007/02/21: ABC(Au): [Queensland Opposition leader, Bruce] Flegg proposes Brisbane carbon exchange
• 2007/02/22: ABC(Au): [Queensland Premier, Peter] Beattie says Qld already in carbon trading scheme
• 2007/02/20: ClimateArk: Australia refused talks on sea levels, island nation [Tuvalu] says
• 2007/02/19: Australian: Critics' 'conspiracy' perplexes Flannery

  The Howard govt. triggered a buzz with its CFL pronouncement:

• 2007/02/20: TerraDaily: Australia To Clip Greenhouse Gas Emmissions With Phase Out Of Inefficient Lighting
• 2007/02/21: Guardian(UK): Green light for Australian ban on old-style bulb
• 2007/02/20: ENN: Australia to Change Lightbulbs to Curb Warming
• 2007/02/20: BBC: Australia has announced plans to ban incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy efficient fluorescent bulbs
• 2007/02/20: ABC(Au): [Federal Environment Minister, Malcolm] Turnbull to pull plug on light bulbs
• 2007/02/20: ABC(Au): Light bulb idea 'came from environmentalist' - [Opposition env. spokesman Peter Garrett says the idea came from John Dee of Planet Ark]
• 2007/02/20: TheAge: Canberra sees the light on energy-saving globes

  While in Asia:

• 2007/02/23: PlanetArk: Five Facts on Japan's Kyoto Protocol Targets
• 2007/02/22: NEN: Japan Sets Standard for Carbon Cutting
• 2007/02/22: Reuters: Tokyo committed to post-Kyoto but avoids targets

  And in Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues

  to do as little as possible:

• 2007/02/19: StraightGoods: Harper lags on Kyoto solutions - Harperites keep the focus away from reasonable and promising approaches to global warming
• 2007/02/21: OilDrum: Kyoto, Canadians, Energy and the Environment
• 2007/02/21: Rabble: Business-as-usual: Will this solve climate change?
  The Harper government, which sees environmental concern as a fad at best and a hoax at worst, is hoping to get the issue off the news so it can run an election on its pet projects -- tax cuts, law and order, and whatnot.
• 2007/02/19: BCLSB: Sheila Copps On Kyoto Implementation

  The provinces are also being singled out:

• 2007/02/23: WorldChanging: British Columbia and the Climate Race
• 2007/02/01: TStar: [Ontario] Greenhouse gases up 90% from coal stations - These power facilities account for 40% of the province's carbon dioxide emissions...

  Then the tricky question of the oil sands looms:

• 2007/02/21: CanWest: Kyoto targets won't hurt us - Suncor chief: Petroleum executive says economy won't be damaged
  Kyoto protocol targets won't cause economic turmoil in the Alberta oilsands, a senior Canadian petroleum executive said Monday as he urged the minority Conservative government not to punish his industry with excessive regulations to reduce the pollution that causes global warming. Gordon Lambert, vice-president for sustainable development at Suncor, said his company has already made investments to green its operations and improve efficiency without any devastating consequences.
• 2007/02/21: DeSmogBlog: Oil sands exec. says Kyoto targets won't hurt industry
• 2007/02/23: PlanetArk: Ottawa Eyeing Intensity-Based Emission Cuts - Suncor
• 2007/02/21: BCLSB: $1 A Barrel To Green The Tar Sands
• 2007/02/21: CanWest: Oil sands emissions could be curbed for $1 a barrel: study
  The oil sands could be brought into compliance with Kyoto emissions-cutting targets at a cost of about $1 per barrel of oil produced, a Commons committee was told Tuesday. The estimate, contained in a Kyoto-compliance plan put forward by the Pembina Institute, suggests that greenhouse emissions from the sands could be curbed without compromising their profitability. "Our proposal is based on the principle that polluters pay their full share," said Matthew Bramley, the environmental think-tank's climate change director, testifying before the committee studying the Clean Air Act. A spokesman for Suncor Energy, a major oil sands producer, did not contradict the estimate, but said he would need more time to study the Pembina figures.

The Boreal Forest is becoming a focus:

• 2007/02/23: Globe&Mail: Protecting Ontario's boreal forests is a win-win-win, Premier McGuinty [Open letter from Robert Bateman, Farley Mowat & David Suzuki]
• 2007/02/22: TCE: Celebrities and Environment Groups Join to Save Boreal
• 2007/02/22: WaPo: In Far North, Peril and Promise - Great Forests Hold Fateful Role in Climate Change [positive feedback]

  The movement toward ecologically based economics is glacial:

• 2007/02/23: TruthOut: World Bank: Deforestation Good for Growth

  An international poll has found strong support for the principle of "the polluter pays":

• 2007/02/23: IHT: Poll finds strong support in Europe and U.S. for polluter taxes
  The poll, conducted for the International Herald Tribune and the French television station France 24 by Harris Interactive, an online polling organization, surveyed 6,576 people in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States.
  Asked whether they supported the "polluter must pay" idea for industry -- that the more a company pollutes, the more it should be taxed -- 92 percent said yes in France, Italy and Spain. In Germany, 89 percent agreed, while 82 percent of Americans and 81 percent of Britons also said yes.

As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2007/02/20: FramingScience: That's Infotainment! Iraq, Anna Nicole, and Astronaut Scandal Dominate Most Heavily Covered Issues Since Start of Year; Global Warming Fails to Place in the Top Ten

  Here is something for your library:

• 2007/02/19: CliProg: Chapter Ten Excerpt [Hell and High Water]: Missing the Story of the Century

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2007/02/19: CSW: "Everything's Cool" global warming documentary has first New York City screening on February 20

  Meanwhile in the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2007/02/23: PlanetArk: Hearing to Probe Climate Change and Inuit Rights
• 2007/02/21: GristMill: CREW v. CEQ re: FOIA
• 2007/02/22: CSM: As earth warms, lawsuits mount - But problems arise when it comes time to pin down those responsible for climate change
• 2007/02/21: Yahoo: Hearing to probe climate change and Inuit rights [Inter-American Commission on Human Rights]

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2007/02/25: IHT: The truth about coal
• 2007/02/25: Guardian(UK): Red tape thwarts wind revolution
  Wind farm projects that could supply power to one in six homes in the UK have been stuck in Britain's controversial planning system - prompting warnings that renewable energy has effectively been 'stopped in its tracks'.
• 2007/02/24: TreeHugger: GE announces High Efficiency Incandescent Light Bulbs [in 2010]
• 2007/02/22: M&C: Solar World: China becomes a growing force
• 2007/02/23: TreeHugger: Minnesota Sets Pace for Renewable Energy
• 2007/02/23: PerthNow: Greens call for $1bn solar-heat subsidy
• 2007/02/23: ClimateArk: Where the Oil Majors stand on global warming
• 2007/02/23: Eureka: University of Nevada professor demonstrates new hydrogen fuel system [harnessing photoactive materials to generate hydrogen by sunlight]
• 2007/02/22: IHT: Minnesota governor sets national pace for renewable energy
  Minnesota put its faith in a future fueled by renewable energy Thursday as the governor signed a law requiring utilities to generate a quarter of their power from renewable sources such as wind, water and solar energy by 2025. Considering where Minnesota stands now -- about half the power produced in the state is from coal, and only 5 percent from renewable sources -- the move is the most aggressive in the country, analysts say. "We have to break our addiction to fossil fuels," Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in signing the legislation.
• 2007/02/21: Telegraph(UK): Wave power project for Orkney - The world's biggest wave energy farm is to be built off the Scottish coast
• 2007/02/21: IHT: Experts debate the best way to make coal cleaner - Doubts exist on main technologies for capturing carbon
• 2007/02/20: TheLedger: Cleaner Coal Is Attracting Some Doubts
  Within the next few years, power companies are planning to build about 150 coal plants to meet growing electricity demands. Despite expectations that global warming rules are coming, almost none of the plants will be built to capture the thousands of tons of carbon dioxide that burning coal spews into the atmosphere.
• 2007/02/20: StraightGoods: Nuclear power no answer for oil sands - Greenhouse gases are produced at each stage of the nuclear energy cycle
• 2007/02/21: ABC(Au): Solar demonstration facility to cut greenhouse gas [100 tonnes CO2/year]
• 2007/02/22: ABC(Au): Firm on track to drill 'hot rock' [geothermal] well
• 2007/02/21: DeSmogBlog: More dirty-coal plants coming to US despite global warming
• 2007/02/21: SwissInfo: Government sticks with nuclear power
• 2007/02/20: MSNBC: Shining a Light on Solar Power - Demand and technological advances are driving solar-energy companies
• 2007/02/20: PhysOrg: Alaskan drilling will assess gas hydrate [aka methane cathrates]
  Drilling has started on an Alaskan North Slope well to assess the United States' largest potential fossil energy resource: gas hydrate
• 2007/02/20: TreeHugger: Thin-Film Solar Technology Could Be Seriously Clobbering Fossil Fuels in Ten Years
• 2007/02/21: SciDaily: From Farm Waste To Fuel Tanks: Record-breaking Methane Storage System Derived From Corncobs
• 2007/02/20: Eureka: From farm waste to fuel tanks - Record-breaking methane storage system derived from corncobs may encourage mass-market natural gas automobiles
• 2007/02/18: Eureka: Effective carbon control policy improves competition, climate, cost of power generation
• 2007/02/18: Telegraph(UK): Cheap solar power poised to undercut oil and gas by half
• 2007/02/18: GristMill: Proposed Dept. of Energy investments in nuclear vs. geothermal

  The issue of the 11 coal fired plants planned in Texas by TXU has come to the fore:

• 2007/02/25: GristMill: If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em: TXU gets an offer from green-friendly equity funds
• 2007/02/25: BBerg: TXU to Curtail Coal Plants to Smooth Approval of Planned Buyout
• 2007/02/25: NYT: In Big Buyout, [TXU] Utility to Limit New Coal Plants
• 2007/02/24: HuffPo: Filthy Coal: As Mark Twain Famously Said, "There's Money In It!"
  Wow. There has been previous mention of the 154 coal plants on the drawing board in 42 states. Now it turns out it may be a bigger scam than we imagined! The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, went behind his state legislature's back and signed an executive order demanding the "fast-tracking" of the "permitting" of a dozen old-style coal plants in Texas. Now we find out that the company that wants that fast-tracking, TXU, has been working behind the scenes to sell itself for $45 billion dollars!
• 2007/02/22: CSM: Before regulation hits, a battle over how to build new US coal plants
• 2007/02/22: HuffPo: Coal Plant Lawyers: Global Warming "For Kings And Presidents...To Decide"
  A lawyer for TXU Corp has told the judges who will rule on whether it can build a slew of new coal-burning power plants here that global warming is not on the docket, and none of their concern. "It's for kings and presidents and world leaders to decide how to address global warming," argued TXU attorney John Riley. "It's not for air permit hearings." With no kings in sight, Texans who oppose TXU's plan to build 11 new plants across the state are nonetheless looking to two administrative judges to block the plan.
• 2007/02/21: TruthOut: Coal Plant Order Blocked - [Texas Gov. Rick] Perry can't fast-track TXU permits, judge rules day before hearings
• 2007/02/21: HuffPo: Local Ranchers Move To Block Coal Plants In Texas

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2007/02/25: CCTimes: California shows how to conserve energy
• 2007/02/21: CliProg: Energy Efficiency in the News (Finally!)
• 2007/02/22: Edie: Government pressed on energy efficiency
  The Joint Statement on Energy Efficiency was launched by Philip Sellwood, chief executive of the Energy Saving Trust on Wednesday and outlines 11 steps that signatories believe would help Government reach its 'ultimate ambition' of using every unit of energy as efficiently as possible.

The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2007/02/24: Stoat: Conservapedia
• 2007/02/23: ERabett: Postmodernism and moral decay in climate change denialism
• 2007/02/23: Deltoid: CNSNews' lame attack on Gore
• 2007/02/18: PNT: That elusive middle ground [AEI, models]
• 2007/02/23: TCE: The Environment - A Religion of Fact
• 2007/02/23: DeSmogBlog: Cheney: "Big Debate" Needed To Determine Whether Humans Are Changing the Climate
• 2007/02/23: DeSmogBlog: Attack on Gore's film countered; polar bears are drowning due to melting ice
• 2007/02/23: DeSmogBlog: Well-heeled skeptics spin drivel in struggle to scorch the planet
• 2007/02/22: DeSmogBlog: Love Your Opinion; Any Facts to Back it Up? [funny sad denial]
• 2007/02/22: C411: This Week's Ignoratio Elenchi Award
• 2007/02/23: CSW: Vice President's global warming views at odds with majority of climate scientists
• 2007/02/22: C411: Exxon Changes its Tune
• 2007/02/22: TP: Radical Right Attacks McCain Over Global Warming: "Loony," "Environmental Extremist," "Popping Off"
• 2007/02/23: ABC(US): Cheney on Global Warming -- Vice President's Views At Odds With Majority Of Climate Scientists
• 2007/02/23: TP: Cheney: "There Does Not Appear To Be A Consensus" That Global Warming Is "Caused By Man"
• 2007/02/22: DelMarvaNow: State distances itself from climatologist
  Gov. Ruth Ann Minner has directed Delaware's state climatologist to stop using his title in public statements on climate change, citing a clash of views on global warming and confusion over the position's ties to the administration.
• 2007/02/20: GristMill: Crichton on Charlie Rose
• 2007/02/20: Deltoid: La Presse on the eco-sceptics' web war
• 2007/02/19: JQuiggin: Another own goal for the denialists?
• 2007/02/18: Deltoid: Bad Science from Queensland's Land and Resources Tribunal
• 2007/02/18: TP: "Proud" Polluter Sean Hannity Launches Pathetic Smear Attack Against Al Gore
• 2007/02/18: HuffPo: Dear Conservatives, Conserve This [George Will do nothingism]

  Then there was the usual news and commentary:

• 2007/02/25: GWW: Good Style Watch [Conscious Earth plug]
• 2007/02/24: DeSmogBlog: Science versus Fiction
• 2007/02/23: BBC: New lakes beneath Antarctic ice - Scientists have discovered four giant lakes under the Antarctic ice
• 2007/02/23: GristMill: The 2007 Global Warming Globie Award winners
• 2007/02/23: C411: A Climate Change Haiku
• 2007/02/23: Stoat: IPCC facts (website)
• 2007/02/22: CliProg: Global Warming is Hot!
• 2007/02/22: GristMill: [Dessler] Elements of an effective response to global warming
• 2007/02/22: TreeHugger: The Momentum of Climate Change
• 2007/02/22: UPI: U.S. lax in preparing for climate change
• 2007/02/20: Tyee: Global Warming Demands Local Fixes - Half of greenhouse emissions are controlled at municipal level
• 2007/02/20: CSW: Closed Doors; Open Democracies? A national dialogue on government openness
• 2007/02/21: ZMag: Warning on Warming [McKibben]
• 2007/02/20: ZMag: Global Warming: It's All About Energy
• 2007/02/21: TomPaine: The Real News About Global Warming
• 2007/02/20: CliProg: Irony can be so Ironic: Wyoming Joins Oklahoma
• 2007/02/20: TruthOut: "Now or Never" for Climate Action
• 2007/02/20: JEB: A bright idea
• 2007/02/20: C411: Picturing a ton of CO2
• 2007/02/19: ClusterFsck: The Big Chill
• 2007/02/19: TD: McKibben, The Real News about Global Warming
• 2007/02/18: WorldChanging: The Week in Carbon
• 2007/02/18: CliProg: The Heat is On
• 2007/02/18: Eureka: Tackling climate change will require expertise from several fields, Carnegie Mellon professor says
• 2007/02/19: PhysOrg: Global Warming Scientist [Susan Solomon] Is Encouraged
• 2007/02/19: GristMill: Bill McKibben: Warning on Warming
• 2007/02/19: JQuiggin: Dead zones
• 2007/02/18: NYT: [Drew Shindell Interview] Political Heat

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

• Save the Boreal Forest
• NEN: New Energy News
• WSJ Energy Blog
• Energy Blue Print
• CTW: Carbon Trade Watch
• EESI: Environmental and Energy Study Institute Briefings
• WWF on Climate Change
• European Commission on the Environment
• Metis: Discussion and announcements on climate science policy
• The Climate Change Caucus in the US House of Representatives
• PEARL: Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory
• Stefan Rahmstorf - List of Publications

---

Announcing the book launch of my forthcoming novel _Water_.

Time: 20:00

Date: Thursday, May 17th

Place: McNally Robinson, Grant Park, Winnipeg, Manitoba

You can find a short introduction to _Water_ here.

<regards>

-het

"The uncertainty of our times is no reason to be certain about hopelessness."

-Vandana Shiva

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