Another Week of GW News, December 9, 2012 [A Few Things Ill Considered]

(Before It's News)

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

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Another Week of Anthropocene Antics

Sipping from the Internet Firehose…

December 9, 2012

• Chuckles, COP19+, Doha: Results, Reactions, Process, Kyoto, Finance, Dailies, Irony
• AGU, Bottom Line, Subsidies, World Bank, Cook, Weathermen
• Fukushima Note, Fukushima News
• Melting Arctic, Arctic Report Card, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Fisheries, Food Prices, Food vs. Biofuel, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, Risk
• ENSO, Biosphere, Extinctions, Proxies, Volcanoes, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Extreme Weather, New Weather
• Tornadoes, Wildfires, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Cities, Transportation, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Restoration, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, DIY Science, Models, Open Science, Hansen, Mahlman
• International Politics: UN, IPCC, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Hormuz, South China Sea
• EU ETS & Airlines, Rare Earths, YPF – Repsol, Security, Law & Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Groundwater
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, Post Sandy, Doha, Keystone
• Carbon Tax, Birth Control, Coal Exports, Obama, USAdmin, Congress
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon Law, Electricity, MDBP, India, Japan
• Canada, Polaris, Petronas, CNOOC, Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan
• Embarassment, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Sask, Ontario, Maritimes, North, Canadiana
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts
• Energy, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, LENR, Grid, Cars, Gee Whiz
• Business, Joe’s List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

It’s always nice to start with a chuckle:

• 2012/12/05: JoeMohrToons: (cartoon – Mohr) Informative Sunset
• 2012/12/05: CGroup: (cartoon – Judge) Department Store Santa
• 2012/12/09: uComics: (cartoon – Toles) Ideas?
• 2012/12/03: uComics: (cartoon – Rall) To Defeat Prop 37
  Looking ahead to COP19 and future international climate negotiations:
• 2012/12/05: AOSIS: Small islands welcome UNSG call for 2014 world leaders climate summit
  Today at an informal ministerial roundtable, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced a plan “to convene world leaders in 2014 to mobilize the political will for a final agreement in 2015″ in order to address urgent emissions reductions needed to avert a global catastrophe.
• 2012/11/28: GreenPeace: Poland must prove trustworthiness as host of 2013 [COP19] climate talks
• 2012/12/09: Yahoo:AFP: Fractious Doha talks bode ill for 2020 deal, observers say
  The Doha COP18 conference concluded on Saturday, December 8.
  The outcome:
• 2012/12/08: UNOG: [396k pdf] Kyoto Protocol extension [Draft texts (correct as of Saturday, 0920, Doha time)]
• 2012/12/08: UNFCCC: [links to pdfs] Various Doha documents
  Doha: The reactions:
• 2012/12/09: ABC(Au): Small nations blast climate talks
  Small island states have led criticism of the latest UN climate talks after they ended in Qatar, saying their lands will disappear if more is not done to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental groups generally described the outcome as “weak” and “disappointing”.
• 2012/12/09: NatureNB: UN climate talks stumble as scientists raise alarm
• 2012/12/09: ChinaDaily: Doha climate talks end with weak commitment by rich nations
• 2012/12/08: BBC: Friends of the Earth: UN climate agreement ‘an empty deal’
• 2012/12/08: GreenPeace: Talks fail to meet pace of climate change – Greenpeace
  Greenpeace condemned politicians today following the failure of the UN Climate talks in Doha. While they agreed to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, it was judged so full of loopholes as to have little or no effect on carbon emissions
• 2012/12/08: WRI: Statement: Climate Talks Wrap Up with a Deal in Doha
• 2012/12/08: AOSIS: Nauru’s Foreign Minister Reacts to Doha Outcome
• 2012/12/08: RTCC: Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam & Climate Action International reax to Doha deal
• 2012/12/08: RTCC: Doha climate deal: EU, USA, Russia, Brazil, Africa & Pacific Island reaction
• 2012/12/08: CDreams: Climate Fail: Cop18 Ends in ‘Betrayal’ — UN climate negotiations end in Doha, Qatar with Kyoto extension
• 2012/12/08: UN: Ban welcomes outcome of UN climate change talks in Doha
  Doha: The process:
• 2012/12/08: CAN: No oasis for climate in Doha desert
• 2012/12/08: Guardian(UK): Doha climate change deal clears way for ‘damage aid’ to poor nations
• 2012/12/08: Guardian(UK): Climate change talks deadlocked on final day of UN summit
• 2012/12/08: Guardian(UK): EU pushes for Kyoto protocol deal as climate talks wind down
• 2012/12/09: CNN: More voices needed in climate debate
  Climate negotiations end in Doha, Qatar without a major agreement – The talks achieved the basic goal of extending the Kyoto Protocol – WRI’s Jennifer Morgan says progress on climate change is still too slow – Morgan: World needs t o ‘get on a path to a strong, fair and ambitious climate agreement’
• 2012/12/08: al Jazeera: Deal reached in Doha to extend Kyoto protocol [Note Duplicate URLs as the story developed]
  Delegates end conference with agreement to keep alive legally binding plan limiting greenhouse-gas emissions until 2020.
• 2012/12/08: al Jazeera: UN climate talks go into overtime in Qatar [Note Duplicate URLs as the story developed]
  Rich and poor nations disagree on funding as negotiators scramble to reach a global agreement on rising CO2 emissions.
• 2012/12/08: TheHindu: Doha climate talks stalled over finance, tech transfer issues
  The Doha round of climate talks plagued by serious differences between rich and poor nations spilled into the early hours of the day as no agreement could be reached over several matters of crucial importance, including finance and technology transfer, that can make or break the talks.
• 2012/12/08: Reuters: Weak plan to save Kyoto pushes climate talks to brink
  Qatar plan proposes eight-year extension to protocol – Puts off decision on increasing aid to 2013 – No major emissions goals have been set at Doha talks
  Weak proposals to extend until 2020 a shrivelled U.N. plan to fight climate change pushed marathon talks to the brink of collapse on Saturday. Delegates from nearly 200 nations spent hours poring over a package deal put forward by the host, OPEC member Qatar, that would also postpone until 2013 a row over demands from developing nations for more cash to help them cope with global warming. Developing nations were divided over the modest deal that all sides said fell short of recommendations by scientists for tougher action to try to avert more heatwaves, sandstorms, floods, droughts and rising sea levels.
• 2012/12/08: WtD: COP18: “Open you eyes to the stark reality… if now now, then when?”
• 2012/12/08: BBC: Doha climate talks: US faces dilemma over final text
  There has been a historic shift in the UN climate talks in Qatar, with the prospect of rich nations having to compensate poor nations for losses due to climate change. The US has fiercely opposed the measure – it says the cost could be unlimited. But after angry tussles throughout the night the principle of Loss and Damage is now in the final negotiating text. Small island states at risk from inundation say they will walk out if the US vetoes the proposed deal. The political stakes are high. The EU’s position is not yet well defined, but soundings suggest that it can live with the text. The US will be seeking support from other big polluters – like Canada – likely to face liability for climate damages. If the US is left alone fighting against the chair’s text, its negotiators face a dilemma – either to bow to the majority and accept that the nations which caused climate change bear a moral responsibility to other nations damaged by it, or to refuse to sign. If the US vetoes the text, President Barack Obama will be accused of hypocrisy and failure after re-committing himself to tackling climate change since his re-election. If he agrees the text he will face criticism from Republicans, whilst he tries to negotiate his own deal over US government finances.
• 2012/12/08: ABC(Au): Troubled UN climate talks spill over
  International talks aiming to address global climate change have been extended amid fears they may collapse altogether. Talks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar, aimed to finalise an agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol. The key issues under consideration were the extension of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of December, and aid for developing nations who will be most affected by the changing climate. The conference was due to wrap up late last night (local time), but will now resume after talks stalled in the dying hours. Dr Chuks Okereke, from the School of Human and Environmental Sciences at the University of Reading, says tension between developing and developed countries has delayed negotiations.
• 2012/12/07: CAN: Canada and New Zealand tie for the infamous Colossal Fossil 2012 award
• 2012/12/07: Salon: Doha climate talks meet low expectations
  The COP 18 summit didn’t intend to address big questions, but resolve technical issues — it’s barely done that
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): Pacific countries disappointed with climate talks
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): Island nations lose hope on climate change compensation
  The tiny island of Kiribati says its fate lies in the balance as the United Nations climate talks in Doha enter their final day. Rich nations are yet to firm up pledges to deliver billions of dollars to poor countries that are on the front line of dangerous climate change. Without compensation and with greenhouse gases increasing at an unprecedented rate, the low-lying nations say they’re losing hope.
• 2012/12/07: 350orBust: Despite Pleas In Doha, Our Governments Have Failed Us & Our Children
• 2012/12/07: Guardian(UK): How Many Gigatons of Carbon Dioxide? The Information is Beautiful guide to Doha
• 2012/12/07: PlanetJ: Doha climate talks: Dreadful deal on the table
• 2012/12/07: Guardian(UK): Doha climate talks – as it happened
  News and analysis as the UN climate talks draw to a close in Doha with agreement still needed on several key issues
• 2012/12/07: Guardian(UK): Doha climate talks stall over draft text wording
  Delegates on the crucial final day of a fortnight-long UN conference report ‘frustratingly slow progress’
• 2012/12/07: DD: Doha climate talks stall over draft text wording
• 2012/12/07: TP:JR: Deadlock In Doha: Is Qatar Going To Be The Place Where International Agreements Go To Die?
• 2012/12/07: CDreams: Climate Justice Advocates Slam Doha’s Emerging ‘Sham of a Deal’
• 2012/12/06: NPR: In Doha, Philippines Negotiator Delivers Emotional Plea For Climate Change Action
• 2012/12/06: al Jazeera: Deep divisions as UN climate talks near end
  Standoff between rich and developing countries remains as the COP18 talks in Qatar enter the final stretch.
• 2012/12/06: Guardian(UK): World’s nations face ‘climate cliff’ at Doha’s COP 18 summit
  With the Kyoto protocol about to lapse, activists are struggling to persuade politicians to re-commit to action on climate change
• 2012/12/06: Guardian(UK): Will Philippines negotiator’s tears change our course on climate change?
  At the COP18 climate talks, the Filipino delegate broke down as he appealed to the world: ‘no more delays, no more excuses’
• 2012/12/06: CCurrents: U.S. Failure To Act Swiftly On Global Warming Imperils The U.S. And The World
• 2012/12/06: CCurrents: A Carbon Tsunami In Doha
• 2012/12/06: PI:B: Crunch time at the Doha climate negotiations
• 2012/12/06: Guardian(UK): Doha climate conference diary…
• 2012/12/06: Guardian(UK): Doha’s most progressive country on climate change? Wales
• 2012/12/06: Guardian(UK): Rare note of harmony at Doha as action agreed on black carbon
  The 25 members of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition have agreed to vastly reduce black carbon, methane and ozone
• 2012/12/06: Guardian(UK): US envoy Todd Stern’s cutting remark on C02 emissions fails to add up
• 2012/12/06: Guardian(UK): Green thinking takes root in midst of desert in Doha climate talks
• 2012/12/06: UCSUSA:B: [2C] A Crucial Benchmark for Climate Action is at Risk. Why it Matters Now More than Ever
• 2012/12/06: BBerg: India Pushing Intellectual-Property Rights at UN Climate Talks
• 2012/12/06: ChinaDaily: Washington shies away from commitments
• 2012/12/05: DerSpiegel: New Hopes Dashed — US Disappoints at Doha Climate Talks
  President Obama’s comments in the wake of the Hurricane Sandy disaster raised hopes across the world that the US was finally willing to act on climate change. But America’s refusal to make concessions at the Doha climate talks shows just how little its position has really budged.
• 2012/12/05: Grist: As global climate talks founder, young people demand real change
• 2012/12/05: PlanetJ: Doha climate talks: Island states stand up for ambition
• 2012/12/05: al Jazeera: Ban calls for compromise at UN climate talks
  UN secretary-general calls for spirit of compromise, saying that global warming poses ‘existential challenge’ to humans.
• 2012/12/05: CDreams: Kyoto all Over Again? US Obstructive Force at Climate Talks
• 2012/12/05: IPSNews: A Storm Brews in Doha
  While the Philippines copes with the aftermath of powerful super-typhoon Bopha, which killed more than 300 people this week, tempers flared at the U.N. climate summit here. Developing countries are angry the U.S. and European Union and other rich industrialised countries refuse to increase their carbon emission reduction targets or agree to additional financing here at COP18. The paralysis in Doha is the result of fossil fuel interests including the world’s richest billionaires, Charles and David Koch, allege activists.
• 2012/12/05: Guardian(UK): Doha climate talks: diplomacy begins at home — Influence depends on the credibility of domestic policies
• 2012/12/05: Guardian(UK): Ban Ki-moon: rich countries are to blame for global warming
• 2012/12/05: Guardian(UK): China pledges ‘due contribution’ on emissions cuts
• 2012/12/04: IndiaTimes: Doha climate talks: India not to enhance its pledge of reducing emissions
• 2012/12/04: CCurrents: Why UN Climate Agreements Fail
• 2012/12/04: DerSpiegel: The Summit in Doha — Four Reasons for Hope on Climate Change by British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey
  Can the world’s climate still be saved? Many have already given up hope due to steadily climbing emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. But the battle has not yet been lost — and there are reasons for optimism.
• 2012/12/04: CDreams: COP18 Shuts Door on Youth, Civil Society, and Impending ‘Carbon Tsunami’
• 2012/12/04: Guardian(UK): Doha climate conference diary: youth activists bring energy and urgency
• 2012/12/04: Guardian(UK): Doha climate conference diary: Qatar’s generosity keeps us guessing
• 2012/12/04: UN: Doha meeting must take decisive action to tackle growing crisis of climate change – Ban
• 2012/12/04: P3: Ban Ki-Moon: “An Existential Challenge”
• 2012/12/04: DD: Climate talks deadlocked in Doha – ‘We are very far behind what science tells us we should be doing’
• 2012/12/04: ICN: Island Nations [AOSIS] Seek Insurance Against Climate Damage
• 2012/12/04: RTCC: UN desertification chief anger at lack of progress in Doha – negotiations focusing on agriculture had been deferred until COP19
• 2012/12/04: CBC: UN chief Ban urges faster response to climate change
• 2012/12/03: PSinclair: Climate Deal in the Works?
• 2012/12/03: CSM: Fuel subsidies get scrutiny at Doha talks
• 2012/12/03: VanObs: Canada ranked as worst performer in the developed world on climate change
• 2012/12/03: DerSpiegel: Five Degrees of Ruination — Scientists Forecast Dramatic Temperature Increase
  The planet must not be allowed to warm beyond 2 degrees Celsius, according to the official targets at the Climate Change Conference in Doha. But a new study shows the goal is far from realistic. Current human activity is set to increase the temperature by some 5 degrees, and the consequences will be dire, scientists warn.
• 2012/12/03: GBN: Africa’s lead negotiator puts out four-point agenda to salvage COP 18
• 2012/12/03: CAN: Canada ranked as worst performer in the developed world on climate change
• 2012/12/03: TMoS: Canada ‘Worst Developed Nation” on Climate Change
• 2012/12/03: Guardian(UK): Climate change compensation emerges as major issue at Doha talks
• 2012/12/03: Guardian(UK): Doha climate talks: why cutting CO2 is more important than stopping methane
• 2012/12/03: PlanetJ: Doha climate talks: my priorities
• 2012/12/03: PlanetJ: Doha climate talks: history
• 2012/12/03: PlanetJ: Doha climate talks: battlelines
• 2012/12/03: DD: UN climate boss: No support for tough climate deal
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Forecast puts spotlight on climate talks
  New studies showing a greater likelihood of a four to six degree temperature increase by the end of this century have given greater impetus to climate change talks in the Middle East. It’s double what world leaders have promised to limit any increase to, but the research says that that kind of control is looking less likely.
• 2012/12/03: RTCC: Ambition deadlock frustrating climate talks in Doha
  Small island states vulnerable to the effects of climate change have raised concerns that with five days of the 2013 UN climate talks left, there is no deal on the table to prevent global temperatures rising to dangerous levels.
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: Week Two: The COP18 UN Climate Conference Is On!
• 2012/12/03: Reuters: Factbox – Unresolved disputes at U.N. climate talks in Doha
• 2012/12/03: Yahoo:AFP: Climate talks deadlocked at halfway point
• 2012/12/03: PeakEnergy: Doha Climate Talks Enter Week 2
• 2012/12/03: WSWS: Doha conference highlights national divisions over climate change
  The Doha 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which began November 26 and will run through December 7, has been characterized by irreconcilable national divisions and the lack of any serious proposals to address climate change.
• 2012/11/18: al Jazeera: Infographic: The politics of climate change
  The positions of key countries and political blocs on climate change measures before the COP18 in Qatar.
• 
  Doha: The fate of Kyoto should be clear post-Doha:

• 2012/12/09: ABC(Au): UN agrees to extend Kyoto Protocol
• 2012/12/08: CBC: Climate delegates agree to extend Kyoto accord
• 2012/12/08: ENS: Doha Outcome: Kyoto Protocol Lives, Global Climate Deal by 2015
• 2012/12/08: CSM: Nations extend weaker Kyoto Protocol
• 2012/12/08: RTCC: Kyoto Protocol extended in Doha, but doubts over short term climate ambition
• 2012/12/08: BBC: UN climate talks extend Kyoto Protocol, promise compensation
• 2012/12/08: DD: Doha climate talks throw lifeline to Kyoto Protocol
• 2012/12/04: ChinaDaily: China urges Kyoto Protocol extension in Doha
• 2012/12/02: Guardian(UK): Carbon credits row could derail UN climate talks, says Brazil
  Head of Brazilian delegation says countries should not be allowed to carry over credits into second round of Kyoto protocol
• 
  Doha: Finance, GCF, SE4ALL etc:

• 2012/12/06: BBerg: Fund May Use $100 Billion a Year to Encourage Carbon Price
  The Green Climate Fund, designed to channel as much as $100 billion a year in pledges to emerging nations, may try to wean recipients off fossil fuel and encourage them to put a price on carbon, according to an overseer.
• 2012/12/06: Guardian(UK): Doha climate talks: should rich countries shoulder ‘responsibility’ for carbon cuts?
• 2012/12/06: Guardian(UK): Money talks — how the Doha conference really comes down to cash
• 2012/12/05: NYT: At Climate Talks, a Struggle Over Aid for Poorer Nations
• 2012/12/05: Reuters: China demands timetable to $100 billion climate aid for developing world
  China led developing nations on Wednesday in demanding rich countries give details of a promised surge in aid to $100 billion a year by 2020 to help the poor cope with global warming. But most rich nations, facing economic slowdown at home that cut overall development aid in 2011, said they were unable to stake out a timetable for rising aid at deadlocked global climate talks.
• 2012/12/05: BBC: Climate compensation row at Doha
  Frustration at slow progress of the UN climate talks bubbled over when a spokesman for small island states (AOSIS) rounded on rich nations.
• 2012/12/05: Guardian(UK): Frustration over lack of climate cash for poor countries rises in Qatar
• 2012/12/04: DemNow: Study: Wealthy Nations’ Fossil Fuel Subsidies 5 Times Greater Than Climate Aid to Countries in Need
• 2012/12/04: IndiaTimes: Climate talks: US, EU refuse to give details about aid pledged to poor countries
  Doha: An overnight diplomatic slugfest ended in log jam as US and EU refuse to even discuss how they shall provide the promised US $ 100 billion to the poor countries to adapt to climate change and address emission reductions. The row erupted even as new reports came in of the developed world having resorted to creative accounting to prove it had delivered on its promise of US $ 30 billion to the poor countries between 2010-2012.
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Australia “committed” to climate change aid
  Doha: Daily reports:
• 2012/12/07: DemNow: “The Most Obdurate Bully in the Room”: U.S. Widely Criticized for Role at Climate Talks
• 2012/12/07: DemNow: “Your Governments Have Failed You”: Syrian-American Student Munira Sibai Calls For Climate Justice
• 2012/12/07: DemNow: Profiting From Pollution: Top Venezuelan Negotiator on the Economic Motives Behind the Climate Talks
• 2012/12/07: DemNow: “If Not Now, Then When?”: Filipino Negotiator Pleads for Climate Deal After Typhoon Kills 500
• 2012/12/06: DemNow: With Future Imperiled, Youth Activists Demand Urgent Action at U.N. Climate Summit in Doha
• 2012/12/05: DemNow: Amy Goodman Questions Top U.S. Negotiator on Alleged Obstruction of U.N. Climate Talks in Doha
• 2012/12/05: DemNow: From Small Island States to Largest Polluters, “Everyone Is Looking to the U.S.” on Global Warming
• 2012/12/05: DemNow: “Get It Done”: After Stirring Durban Speech, Student Anjali Appadurai Initially Banned by U.N. in Doha
• 2012/12/04: DemNow: As Typhoon Bopha Wreaks Havoc, Philippine Negotiator Urges Wealthy Nations to Address Global Warming
• 2012/12/04: DemNow: Former Irish President Mary Robinson: Climate Change the Biggest Human Rights Issue of Our Time
• 2012/12/04: DemNow: In Doha, Lead U.S. Negotiator Plays Down Expectations of Climate Action in Obama’s Second Term
• 2012/12/03: DemNow: At U.N. Climate Summit in Doha, Arab Youth Activists Stage Qatar’s First-Ever Climate March
• 2012/12/03: DemNow: Climate Cliff: As Global Emissions Peak, Hopes for U.N. Climate Deal in Doha at All-Time Low
• 2012/12/06: CAN: Eco11 Newsletter
• 2012/12/06: CAN: Eco10 Newsletter
• 2012/12/05: CAN: Eco9 Newsletter
• 2012/12/04: CAN: Eco8 Newsletter
• 2012/12/03: CAN: Eco7 Newsletter
• 2012/12/07: IISD: Coverage on Friday, 7 December 2012
• 2012/12/06: IISD: Coverage on Thursday, 6 December 2012
• 2012/12/05: IISD: Coverage on Wednesday, 5 December 2012
• 2012/12/04: IISD: Coverage on Tuesday, 4 December 2012
• 2012/12/03: IISD: Coverage on Monday, 3 December 2012
• 2012/12/02: IISD: Coverage on Sunday, 2 December 2012
• 2012/12/01: IISD: Coverage on Saturday, 1 December 2012
• 2012/12/08: RTCC: COP18 Live: Latest news from Day 12 of Doha climate summit
• 2012/12/07: RTCC: COP18 Live: Latest news from Day 11 of Doha climate summit
• 2012/12/06: RTCC: COP18 Live: Latest news from Day 10 of Doha climate summit
• 2012/12/05: RTCC: COP18 Live: Latest news from Day 9 of Doha climate summit
• 2012/12/04: RTCC: COP18 Live: Latest news from Day 8 of Doha climate summit
• 2012/12/03: RTCC: COP18 Live: Latest news from Day 7 of Doha climate summit
  Doha: The irony:
• 2012/12/07: DemNow: Qatari Human Rights Official Defends Life Sentence for Poet Who Praised Arab Spring Uprisings
• 2012/12/07: Guardian(UK): UN climate summit’s Qatari hosts under fire as talks drag on
• 2012/12/03: Guardian(UK): Doha climate conference diary: Qatar’s first environmental march
  The yearly AGU conference in San Fran generated a lot of newa:
• 2012/12/: AGU: Video On-Demand Lectures and Sessions
• 2012/12/08: RealClimate: Some AGU highlights
• 2012/12/08: GoogleG: At his AGU Tyndall Lecture: Raymond Pierrehumbert calls SRM geoengineering ideas “crazy”, and “barking mad”
• 2012/12/07: CAbyss: Dispatch from AGU: Pinning Down Antarctica Melt
• 2012/12/07: ERabett: Signifiers
• 2012/12/07: WtD: AGU Carl Sagan Lecture: “We can look forward to an ice free pole in 20-30 years”
• 2012/12/06: P3: The Real Debate on Climate is Happening in San Francisco
• 2012/12/06: CAbyss: Dispatch from AGU: Ocean Acidification
• 2012/12/05: CAbyss: Dispatch from AGU: Least Drama
• 2012/12/05: OSU: Fire and Ice: Wildfires Darkening Greenland Snowpack, Increasing Melting [AGU]
• 2012/12/05: CAbyss: Dispatch from AGU: It’s Not a Divergence Problem, It’s a Divergence Opportunity
• 2012/12/05: SciNow: ‘Is Earth F**ked?’ AGU Scientist Asks
• 2012/12/04: CAbyss: Dispatch from AGU: Dodging a Bullet
• 2012/12/04: CAbyss: Dispatch from AGU: How Fast Is Fast?
• 2012/12/04: CAbyss: Dispatch from AGU: With Apologies to Mark Twain
• 2012/12/04: Eureka: Sunshine, biofuel and the tides, oh my! PNNL discusses alternative energy options at AGU
• 2012/12/04: BBC: Alaskan black guillemots fight ice retreat
• 2012/12/03: ERabett: The Problem of Choice
• 2012/11/30: Stanford: Stanford geoscientist cites critical need for basic research to unleash promising energy sources
  And on the Bottom Line:
• 2012/12/07: CSM: Stubborn US drought could be costlier than hurricane Sandy
• 2012/12/05: ABC(Au): UN warning on ‘trillion-dollar’ climate costs
  Just to keep these subsidies in perspective:
• 2012/12/03: TP:JR: Analysis: Rich Countries Spend Five Times More On Fossil Fuel Subsidies Than Climate Aid
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: IEA Head Calls for End to Fossil Fuel Subsidies
• 2012/12/03: OilChange: [link to 195k pdf] New Analysis: Fossil fuel subsidies five times greater than climate finance
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: Rich Nations Spend 5x More Money on Subsidizing Fossil Fuels Than Climate Change Assistance
• 2012/12/03: BBerg: Fossil-Fuel Subsidies of Rich Nations Five Times Climate Aid
  Rich countries spend five times more on fossil-fuel subsidies than on aid to help developing nations cut their emissions and protect against the effects of climate change, the Oil Change International campaign group said. In 2011, 22 industrialized nations paid $58.7 billion in subsidies to the oil, coal and gas industries and to consumers of the fuels, compared with climate-aid flows of $11.2 billion, according to calculations by the Washington-based group.
• 
  Does World Bank’s right hand know what it’s left is doing?

• 2012/12/05: Grist: World Bank: We hate climate change. Now who wants more coal?
• 2012/12/07: TP:JR: World Bank’s New Climate Strategy: Keep Financing Coal, Just Don’t Call It A Coal Plant
  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
• 2012/12/09: SkS: Newest Yale Forum Video: A ‘Play-by-Play’ on Sandy with Kerry Emanuel by greenman3610
• 2012/12/08: SkS: Subcap Methane Feedbacks. Part 2: Quantifying fossil methane seepage in Alaska and the Arctic by Andy S
• 2012/12/07: SkS: Past 150,000 Years of Sea Level History Suggests High Rates of Future Sea Level Rise by Rob Painting
• 2012/12/06: SkS: 2012 SkS Bi-Weekly News Roundup #7 by John Hartz
• 2012/12/06: SkS: DIY climate science: The Instrumental Temperature Record by Kevin C
• 2012/12/05: SkS: Weighing change in Antarctica by mattking
• 2012/12/05: SkS: The Greenhouse Gas Effect All-Star Fan Club by Daniel Bailey
• 2012/12/03: SkS: New research from last week 48/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
• 2012/12/03: SkS: 2012 SkS Weekly Digest #48 by John Hartz
• 2012/12/02: SkS: 2012: Record Arctic Sea Ice Melt, Multiple Extremes and High Temperatures by John Hartz
  TV Meteorologists typically follow the corporate media line…:
• 2012/12/05: RStone: Forecasting Denial: Why Are TV Weathercasters Ignoring Climate Change?
  A note on theFukushima disaster:

  It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.] We’ll see. At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
  Meanwhile…
  It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
  How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
  Do they have an agenda?
  Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
  Do they want to write a good news story?
  Do they want to write a bad news story?
  Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
  Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
  One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
  If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

• 
  Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

• 2012/12/08: EneNews: Newspaper: Door-to-door surveys revealed clusters of Fukushima residents with persistent nose bleeds, diarrhea – Fallout refugees talk about bizarre rashes, high fevers, more
• 2012/12/08: EneNews: Report: M7.3 quake caused reaction inside Unit 1 at Fukushima Daiichi – Indications are that something corium related is going on
• 2012/12/06: EneNews: Outrage as AP exposes Japan scientists taking money from nuke industry…
• 2012/12/06: EneNews: Kyodo: Japan gov’t thinks they can restart nuclear reactors in a few months
• 2012/12/06: TheAge: Escape to Okinawa
  As radiation hot spots emerge in Tokyo and nuclear contamination plagues the country, some Japanese are fleeing to the Okinawa island chain to avoid the fallout from Fukushima. But is it too late?
• 2012/12/05: EneNews: Japan TV: More than 80% of homes are still contaminated with Fukushima fallout
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): UN expert [Anand Grover]:Japan’s view on Fukushima too optimistic
• 2012/12/02: EneNews: Top 33 Headlines from the NRC’s Fukushima FOIA releases
• 2012/12/03: EneNews: Government’s hospital “will not report the truth about the conditions of our health” -Fukushima restaurant owner
• 2012/12/01: Asahi: High thyroid radiation doses in 178 Fukushima workers
  Dozens of workers received potentially cancerous doses of radiation to their thyroid glands during recovery work at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to data submitted to the World Health Organization. Tests on workers suspected of having high whole-body internal doses found 178 individuals whose thyroid glands displayed doses greater than 100 millisieverts, the generally accepted threshold for a raised risk of thyroid cancer. The highest recorded dose was 11,800 millisieverts, a level that would give a correspondingly high probability of thyroid cancer. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. submitted the data on thyroid tests for 522 workers — both its own staff and contractors — to the WHO upon request.
• 
  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

• 2012/12/07: Guardian(UK): Smoke from Arctic wildfires may have caused Greenland’s record thaw
  Satellite images suggest soot particles settled over ice sheet making it absorb more heat during last year’s extreme melting
• 2012/12/05: ASI: The last ice expedition
• 2012/12/07: CNN: As climate warms, Arctic spawns massive ice islands
  Greenland’s glaciers and Canada’s ice shelves are diminishing fast, scientists say – Giant ice islands are breaking off, sometimes floating into shipping lanes – Yet the number of icebergs surviving south of the 48th parallel has declined – Scientists are just beginning to research the rate at which ice islands melt and divide
• 2012/12/08: TMoS: Tundra is Fuel and It Will Burn Us
• 2012/12/04: BBC: Alaskan black guillemots fight ice retreat
  A small colony of black guillemots living on a gravel spit off Point Barrow is providing a unique insight into the changing Arctic environment.
• 2012/12/02: ASI: Record dominoes 13: CT global SIA maximum
  NOAA released the Arctic Report Card this week:
• 2012/12/: NOAA: Arctic Report Card
• 2012/12/06: TP:JR: NOAA: Climate Change Driving Arctic Into A ‘New State’ With Rapid Ice Loss And Record Permafrost Warming
• 2012/12/06: NatureNB: Arctic Report Card: Dark Times Ahead
• 2012/12/05: ScienceInsider: Report Card for the Arctic Highlights Rapid, Record-Setting Changes
• 2012/12/05: NOAANews: Arctic continues to break records in 2012: Becoming warmer, greener region with record losses of summer sea ice and late spring snow
• 2012/12/05: Guardian(UK): Arctic lost record snow and ice last year as data shows changing climate
• 2012/12/05: Guardian(UK): [NOAA] Scientists to reveal full extent of Arctic ice loss amid climate change fears
• 2012/12/06: DM: 2012: The End of the Arctic Era
  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:
• 2012/12/08: SkS: Subcap Methane Feedbacks. Part 2: Quantifying fossil methane seepage in Alaska and the Arctic by Andy S
• 2012/12/07: ArcticNews: AMEG Strategic Plan
• 2012/12/07: Eureka: Massive crevasses and bendable ice affect stability of Antarctic ice shelf, CU research team finds
• 2012/12/07: SciNow: Ticking Arctic Carbon Bomb May Be Bigger Than Thought [AGU & Arctic]
• 2012/12/05: DD: Permafrost thaw to cause more global warming, not yet accounted for in climate predictions
• 2012/12/07: NatureN: Gas hydrates in Arctic are shallowest yet found — Undersea methane hydrate deposit could serve as climate-change canary
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Permafrost thaws as climate warms
  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
• 2012/12/05: DeSmogBlog: Rep. Markey Raises Big Questions About Shell’s Containment Dome Fail
• 2012/12/03: DeSmogBlog: Shell’s Arctic Oil Spill Gear “Crushed Like a Beer Can” In Simple Test
• 2012/12/04: OilChange: Oops: Shell’s Spill Dome “Crushed like a Beer Can”
• 2012/12/03: CCP: Shell’s Arctic Oil-Spill Gear Is “Crushed Like A Beer Can” in Puget Sound sea trial
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: Shell Arctic Oil Spill Clean Up Gear “Crushed Like a Beer Can” in Tests
• 2012/12/03: Yahoo:CP: Canada focuses on development at Arctic Council; experts fear wrong approach
• 2012/12/03: AftenBladet: Arctic Ocean gets first gas cargo
  A fully loaded LNG tanker has for the first time sailed along the Northern Sea Route from Norway to Japan.
• 
  While in Antarctica:

• 2012/12/06: Eureka: Warm sea water is melting Antarctic glaciers
  The food crisis is ongoing:
• 2012/12/06: al Jazeera: Drought wipes out Brazil cattle ranches
  With no rain in a year and a half, many cows around the town of Serrita have starved to death.
• 2012/12/05: Guardian(UK): Climate change will mean more malnourished children, experts warn
  Food prices set to more than double if climate change not checked and developing countries not helped to adapt farming
• 2012/12/05: ABC(Au): Wheat farmers warned of climate change threat
• 2012/12/05: CNN: How severe weather impacts global food supply
  This year’s severe weather events have led to low yields in grain exporting nations – Kansas prairie farmer Donn Teske says extreme weather events are becoming much more extreme – Aid group Oxfam believes there may be another spike in food prices in early 2013 and longer term volatility – Some countries like Nigeria are looking for alternative staple crops such as cassava
• 2012/12/04: NBF: More than Economic Growth is Needed to Address Hunger in India and Asia
• 2012/12/07: PostMedia: Lower Mainland food supply at risk from rising sea levels
• 2012/12/05: CNN: How severe weather impacts global food supply
  This year’s severe weather events have led to low yields in grain exporting nations – Kansas prairie farmer Donn Teske says extreme weather events are becoming much more extreme – Aid group Oxfam believes there may be another spike in food prices in early 2013 and longer term volatility – Some countries like Nigeria are looking for alternative staple crops such as cassava
• 2012/12/03: Grist: Nanoparticles in your food? You’re already eating them
  The state of the world’s fisheries is a concern:
• 2012/12/06: FAO: [link to 4.4 meg pdf] The State of Food and Agriculture 2012
• 2012/12/06: PNC: WCPFC: Big Fishing Nations Must Act This Week to Reduce Over Fishing of Tuna
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): Big nations block curbs on tuna overfishing
  Delegates say efforts to curb overfishing of tuna in the Pacific have been blocked by big countries that refused to cut their catch at a meeting of tuna-fishing nations in the Asia-Pacific. The Western and Central Pacific Commission, comprising 30 member nations and territories, ended a five-day meeting in Manila with minor agreements to help tuna stocks recover, said observers who attended. The commission had hoped to address concerns that many tuna species were being fished beyond sustainable levels in the Western Pacific, a region that produces more than 50 percent of the world’s tuna catch. However Palau fishing official Nanette Malsol said many big nations refused to cut their catch, especially of bigeye tuna which the commission said should ideally have its catch reduced by 30 percent.
• 2012/12/05: NOAANews: Innovations and partnerships provide opportunities to Northeast groundfish industry
• 2012/12/06: Eureka: Notre Dame research reveals migrating Great Lakes salmon carry contaminants upstream
• 2012/12/06: Resilience: Taking Stock: World Fish Catch Falls to 90 Million Tons in 2012
• 2012/12/06: GreenPeace: Tuna plunder to continue as governments fail to clamp down on overfishing
• 2012/12/03: DD: Pacific nations alarmed by tuna overfishing – ‘The deployment of tens of thousands of drifting fish aggregating devices is extremely worrisome’
  Food Prices are still problematic:
• FAO: World Food Situation – Food Price Indices
• 2012/12/06: TMoS: World Bank – High Food Prices are the New Normal
• 2012/12/06: CBC: Meat prices set to rise in 2013
  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:
• 2012/12/06: EurActiv: Plant-based plastics ‘no panacea’, Greens warn
  The world’s largest drinks companies, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have laid down ambitious plans to roll out 100% plant-based plastic bottles across the globe, triggering warnings from environmentalists who see a parallel with the ongoing controversy over biofuels.
• 2012/12/07: EurActiv: FAO report links high food prices to biofuel demand
  Biofuels account for the largest source of new demand for agricultural production and have helped drive price volatility in grain crops like wheat and maize, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization says in a new report. Biodiesel accounted for 80% of the EU’s vegetable oil production while 37% of the grain crop in the United States went towards ethanol production, the FAO’s ‘State of Food and Agriculture 2012′ report shows. The report, released Thursday (6 December), calls for ramping up agricultural investment in developing nations to provide jobs and reduce poverty. It points out that average farm production has declined since the 1960s and that threats to land and water could further erase gains.
• 
  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2012/12/08: CCurrents: Corporate Push For GMO Food Puts Independent Science In Jeopardy by Vandana Shiva
• 2012/12/08: al Jazeera: Dirty white gold
  Monsanto’s claim that it’s a “sustainable agriculture company” doesn’t hold water.
• 2012/12/07: CDreams: Corporate Push for GMO Food Puts Independent Science in Jeopardy
• 2012/12/05: UWarwick: Discovery of 100 million-year-old regions of DNA shows short cut to crop science advances
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: Department of Justice Quietly Stops Investigating Monsanto for Antitrust Violations
• 2012/12/03: NatureN: Scientists torn over Kenya’s recent GM food ban — Government cites health concerns as it restricts imports
• 2012/12/03: UCSUSA:B: Staff of Life Decoded: Tasty News for Bread Lovers, Food Security, and Climate Change Adaptation
  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
• 2012/12/07: BPA: Agricultural Innovation Loses Out as Agribusiness Monopolies Grow
• 2012/12/07: CSM: India tests ways to help farmers cope with climate change
• 2012/12/07: Guardian(UK): Fields on fire: making farming more sustainable in India – in [10] pictures
• 2012/12/06: FAO: FAO calls for farmer-centred approach to investment in agriculture
  Governments urged to create favorable investment climate for farmers Making more and better investments in agriculture is one of the most effective ways to reduce hunger and poverty while safeguarding the environment. This is the key message of FAO´s flagship annual report, The State of Food and Agriculture 2012 (SOFA) presented today in Rome.
• 2012/12/03: ERW: Crop yields: radiation is most important
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: Can Permaculture Transform Industrial Agriculture?
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Big changes to agriculture in warming climate
  Scientists say a four to six degree rise in average temperatures would require a complete change in the world’s farming practices. A warming climate could be beneficial for some countries, especially those in the northern hemisphere, like Russia and Canada. But Australia may have to import more food than it produces.
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Revellers warned to limit Christmas food waste
  Australians are expected to spend about $10 billion on food over the Christmas period, but a staggering 35 per cent will be wasted and end up as landfill.
• 2012/12/02: NakedCapitalism: Sepp Holzer: Aquaculture — Synergy of Land and Water
  Oh crap! Bopha zapped Mindanao in the Philippines, then did a curly-cue in the South China Sea, and is heading back toward Luzon:
• 2012/12/09: ABC(Au): Flooding fears as Bopha returns to Philippines
  Killer storm Bopha is set to make landfall in the Philippines for a second time, just days after it slammed into the south of the country and left almost 1,400 dead or missing. Bopha, now downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm, changed course after heading into the South China Sea and is heading towards the main Philippines island of Luzon. Despite being weaker, with 55 kilometre per hour winds, the storm brought heavy rain and concerns of landslides and flash flooding with its return.
• 2012/12/08: ABC(Au): Philippines declares state of calamity after Typhoon Bopha [540 dead, 383 missing, 306,000 homeless]
• 2012/12/08: DD: Philippines typhoon deaths rise as president declares state of calamity
• 2012/12/08: ABC(Au): Philippines declares calamity after typhoon
  A state of national calamity has been declared in the Philippines following typhoon Bopha, which has left about 1,000 people dead or missing.
• 2012/12/08: ABC(Au): Typhoon Bopha turns back towards Philippines
• 2012/12/08: DD: Typhoon Bopha makes U-turn, threatens Philippines again
• 2012/12/08: MODIS: Super Typhoon Bopha (26W) approaching the Philippines
• 2012/12/07: NASA: NASA Infrared Data Shows Typhoon Bopha Re-Strengthened in South China Sea
• 2012/12/07: Eureka: NASA infrared data shows Typhoon Bopha re-strengthened in South China Sea
• 2012/12/07: al Jazeera: Typhoon Bopha re-forms
  Typhoon Bopha has re-developed in the South China Sea and now threatens flooding in the northern Philippines.
• 2012/12/07: DD: Death toll from Typhoon Bopha tops 500 in Philippines
• 2012/12/07: CBC: Death toll in typhoon-hit Philippines tops 500 [400 missing, 300.000 homeless]
• 2012/12/07: DD: Photo gallery: The wake of Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines
• 2012/12/07: al Jazeera: Hundreds of thousands homeless in Philippines
  President Benigno Aquino promises measures will be taken to prevent future storm disasters.
• 2012/12/06: al Jazeera: Death toll rises after Philippines typhoon [420 dead, 400 missing]
  At least 420 people confirmed dead and 400 more missing three days after powerful storm hits the south of the country.
• 2012/12/06: NASA: NASA Compiles Typhoon Bopha’s Philippines Rainfall Totals from Space
• 2012/12/06: ABC(Au): Search for bodies as Philippines responds to typhoon devastation
• 2012/12/06: ABC(Au): ‘Miracle’ survivor found in Philippines typhoon debris [pix]
  A Philippines typhoon “miracle survivor” has been rescued after being trapped for two days under rocks and debris in flash floods that swept away his entire family and their farming hamlet. Slathered in mud and teary-eyed, Carlos Agang recounted how a small community of banana and coconut farmers was obliterated as Typhoon Bopha unleashed a wall of water after making landfall on southern Mindanao island on Tuesday. “It’s a miracle that I survived, but I might as well be dead,” Mr Agang told reporters as aid workers carried him off on a stretcher with a broken leg to be airlifted to hospital.
• 2012/12/06: ABC(Au): Philippines typhoon toll nears 500
• 2012/12/06: al Jazeera: Thousands homeless after Philippines typhoon
  Nearly 200,000 people homeless, at least 313 dead and hundreds more missing after Typhoon Bopha hits eight provinces.
• 2012/12/05: BBC: Philippine Typhoon Bopha death toll passes 300
  More than 300 people have died and hundreds more are missing in the wake of Typhoon Bopha, which cut a swathe of devastation across the southern Philippines.
• 2012/12/05: Reuters: Typhoon kills at least 283 in Philippines
• 2012/12/05: Wunderground: At least 270 dead from Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines
• 2012/12/05: CSM: The Philippines: Typhoon brings fierce winds, rain
• 2012/12/05: BBC: Philippines: Typhoon Bopha death toll rises
• 2012/12/05: CBC: Philippines typhoon death toll tops 200
• 2012/12/05: WSWS: Scores dead as typhoon hits the Philippines
• 2012/12/05: al Jazeera: Typhoon toll doubles in the Philippines
  More than 200 people believed dead, with another 87,000 evacuated as Bopha causes havoc across the country’s south.
• 2012/12/05: al Jazeera: The images from a Super Typhoon
  Bopha proved its strength across Mindanao as the strongest storm to ever hit the island
• 2012/12/05: BBerg: Storm Deaths in Philippines Increase to More Than 200
  Storm Bopha may head toward China as the death toll from the fiercest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year rose to more than 230 people, with at least 79 missing.
• 2012/12/05: IOTD: Bopha Makes Landfall
• 2012/12/05: ABC(Au): Philippines town washed away as Typhoon toll rises [pix]
  The Philippines military says the death toll from Typhoon Bopha has risen to at least 94, with fears held for hundreds of missing villagers. The storm barrelled into Mindanao on Tuesday morning, bringing winds of up to 200 kilometres an hour.
• 2012/12/04: Wunderground: Typhoon Bopha hits the Philippines at Cat 5 strength; at least 40 killed
• 2012/12/04: NASA: Typhoon Bopha Brings Heavy Rains to the Philippines
• 2012/12/04: WtD: The New Normal (Part 28): powerful typhoon hits Philippines
• 2012/12/04: WtD: Image of the day: Typhoon Bopha from space
• 2012/12/04: BBC: Philippines typhoon ‘kills dozens’
  More than 40 people have been killed after a powerful typhoon swept across the southern Philippines, according to local media reports. Typhoon Bopha made landfall on Mindanao, bringing heavy rain and wind gusts of 210 km/h (130mph) and forcing 40,000 people to be evacuated.
• 2012/12/04: BBC: In pictures: Typhoon Bopha hits Philippines
• 2012/12/04: CBC: Philippines typhoon leaves at least 40 dead — Heavy rain, wind causes 46,000 people to flee coastal area of country
• 2012/12/04: al Jazeera: A storm for the record books — The Philippines strongest typhoon [Bopha] of the year makes landfall
• 2012/12/04: al Jazeera: Typhoon Bopha kills dozens in the Philippines
  At least 40 people are killed and more than 57,000 people evacuated as Typhoon Bopha smashes into south.
• 2012/12/04: MODIS: Typhoon Bopha (26W) in the Pacific Ocean
• 2012/12/04: BBerg: Storm Bopha Slams Into Southern Philippines, Forcing Evacuations
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Philippines hit by Typhoon Bopha
  Floods and landslides have been reported in areas in the south-eastern Philippines, after Typhoon Bopha made landfall on the southern province of Davao. Bopha, also known as Pablo, made landfall on Mindanao’s east coast at dawn, uprooting trees and blowing off roofs. There have been no immediate reports of casualties…
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Thousands flee as Typhoon Bopha approaches the Philippines
• 2012/12/03: Wunderground: Category 5 Super Typhoon Bopha bearing down on the Philippines
• 2012/12/03: Reuters: Southern Philippines braces for Typhoon Bopha
  In the South Indian Ocean:
• 2012/12/07: NASA: NASA Casts Infrared Eye on Southern Indian Ocean’s Tropical Cyclone Claudia
  As for GHGs:
• 2012/12/03: GermanWatch: [links to several pdfs] The Climate Change Performance Index 2013 — A comparison of the 58 top CO2 emitting nations
• 2012/12/05: TP:JR: Why Claims About Reductions Of U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Are Misleading
• 2012/12/04: NatureNB: Scientists publish consensus statement on deforestation emissions
• 2012/12/04: LBL: More Potent than Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxide Levels in California May be Nearly Three Times Higher Than Previously Thought
  Berkeley Lab researchers devise a new method to estimate state’s greenhouse gas emissions.
• 2012/12/03: GermanWatch: High Emissions – Low Ambitions — Germanwatch’s Climate Change Performance Index published at Doha’s climate talks
• 2012/12/03: Guardian(UK): CO2 emissions rises mean dangerous climate change now almost certain
  Research by Global Carbon Project says emissions growth placing world on path to warm between 4 and 6C
• 2012/12/03: DD: Carbon pollution up to 2 million pounds a second
• 2012/12/03: ForestsCC: Towards a consensus on carbon emissions from tropical deforestation
• 2012/12/03: UCSUSA:B: Scientists Reach Agreement on Emissions from Tropical Deforestation
• 2012/12/03: RTCC: 2012 set to be record year for CO2 emissions
• 2012/12/03: CSIRO: The widening gap between present emissions and the two-degree target
• 2012/12/02: Eureka: Record high for global carbon emissions
• 2012/12/03: OilChange: World Faces 4-6 Degree Temp Rise
• 2012/12/02: Google:AFP: [GCP] Study sees 5C warming
• 2012/12/03: al Jazeera: Study: Global carbon emissions reach new high
  Atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions rose by about three percent last year, according to a new study.
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Temps set to soar as emissions grow: report
  The latest snapshot from climate scientists has found the planet is on track for a 4 to 6 degree Celsius temperature rise by the turn of the century. As United Nations climate talks enter their final week in Doha on the Persian Gulf, scientists are increasing the pressure on governments to do more to cut the discharge of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The Global Carbon Project report, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, has calculated that emissions rose by 3 per cent last year, and 2.6 per cent this year, despite the weak global economy.
• 2012/12/02: BBC: Carbon emissions are ‘too high’ to curb climate change
  It is increasingly unlikely that global warming will be kept below an increase of 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels, a study suggests. Data show that global CO2 emissions in 2012 hit 35.6bn tonnes, a 2.6% increase from 2011 and 58% above 1990 levels.
• 
  And the temperature record:

• 2012/12/07: CapClimate: Midwest Mildness Smashes Snowless Streaks…
• 2012/12/05: CLB: Temperatures in Mongolia
• 2012/12/07: Wunderground: Very warm November assures 2012 will be warmest year in U.S. history
• 2012/12/02: RawStory: World temperature set to increase 9F degrees: [GCP] study
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Two degrees of warming by 2050 ‘very difficult’ to avoid
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): New figures give grim prognosis on climate change
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Temps set to soar as emissions grow: report
  Aerosols are making their presence felt:
• 2012/12/09: MODIS: Dust storm in the Gobi Desert
  While in the paleoclimate:
• 2012/12/07: NewScientist: Captured: the moment photosynthesis changed the world
  Billions of years ago, a tiny cyanobacterium cracked open a water molecule – and let loose a poison that wrought death and destruction on an epic scale. The microbe had just perfected photosynthesis, a process that freed the oxygen trapped inside water and killed early Earth’s anaerobic inhabitants. Now, for the first time, geologists have found evidence of the crucial evolutionary stage just before cyanobacteria split water. The find offers a unique snapshot of the moment that made the modern world. With the advent of photosynthesis came an atmosphere dominated by oxygen and, ultimately, the diversity of life forms that we know today.
• 2012/12/04: BBC: Fossil raindrops probe ancient atmosphere [AGU]
  The imprints of raindrops preserved in 2.7bn-year-old rock are being used to figure out what the atmosphere was like on the early Earth. Scientists have used the depressions drops left to calculate how fast they were going as they impacted the ground. This has allowed them to determine the density of air in ancient times. This “palaeobarometry” approach, revealed at the AGU Fall Meeting, will help constrain the models that try to simulate conditions in Archaean times.
• 
  How to deal with Risk:

• 2012/12/05: CSM: Wildland fires: New yardstick for risk aims to help protect communities
  And on the ENSO front:
• 2012/12/06: NOAA:NCEP: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
  Synopsis: ENSO-neutral is favored for Northern Hemisphere winter 2012-13 and into spring 2013.
• 
  What’s new in Biodiversity?

• 2012/12/06: CalAcademy: 137 new species described by California Academy of Sciences in 2012
  What’s new on the extinction front?
• 2012/12/07: PRI:LOE: Reindeer Populations in Decline
• 2012/12/07: DD: Africa’s lion population plummets by two thirds in 50 years, study finds
• 2012/12/06: TheConversation: Australia’s critically endangered animal species
• 2012/12/05: GreenGrok: Disappearing habitat, disappearing lions
• 2012/12/04: SciAm:EC: DNA Reveals the Last 20 Ethiopian Lions Are Genetically Distinct
• 2012/12/04: CSM: Why Africa’s lions are rapidly disappearing
  The lions that roam Africa’s savannahs have lost as much as 75 percent of their habitat in the last 50 years as humans overtake their land and the lion population dwindles, said a study released Tuesday.
• 2012/12/04: BBC: South Africa is to deploy a reconnaissance airplane to combat a massive rise in rhino poaching
• 2012/12/04: CBC: Bats, snakes now among endangered species in Canada
• 2012/12/04: CBC: African lion populations dwindling as humans take over — As few as 32,000 lions left across the continent
  What’s new in proxies?
• 2012/12/07: UW: Greenland ice sheet carries evidence of increased atmospheric acidity
  What’s up with volcanoes this week?
• 2012/12/08: IOTD: Activity at Tolbachik Volcano [Kamchatka]
• 2012/12/05: MODIS: Eruption at Plosky Tolbachik, Kamchatka Peninsula, eastern Russia
  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
• 2012/12/02: BBerg: Keep Satellites Aloft to Be Ready for Bad Weather Below
  Thanks to an unbroken stream of atmospheric and oceanic measurements beamed to Earth from well- positioned satellites, meteorologists were able to predict Hurricane Sandy’s monstrous power and strange path (tropical storms typically turn right, not left) long before it hit the New Jersey coast. It’s the kind of precision we might assume can only get better, as scientists fine-tune their instruments and forecast models. Instead, in a few years, weather predictions in the U.S. are in danger of becoming less accurate. Why? Because the federal government is unprepared, at least temporarily, to operate a full complement of satellites.
• 
  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2012/12/05: Eureka: Wind speeds in southern New England declining inland, remaining steady on coast
• 2012/12/06: Eureka: Drought in the Horn of Africa delays migrating birds
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): Ocean heatwave hits WA waters bringing new fish
• 2012/12/03: DD: Climate change: Africa is most affected
  And then there are the world’s forests:
• 2012/12/07: CBC: World’s biggest trees dying ‘alarmingly’ fast
• 2012/12/03: DerSpiegel: Clear-Cutting Sumatra — Rainforest Pulp Used in German Children’s Books
  Children’s books are the second largest segment in Germany’s billion-euro book industry. But publishers’ profits are coming at the expense of rainforests in Asia, according to a new report from the WWF. Nearly 30 percent of German children’s books use pulp from rainforest wood harvested in Sumatra and elsewhere in the region.
• 2012/12/06: SciAm: Stop Burning Rain Forests for Palm Oil
  The world’s growing appetite for cheap palm oil is destroying rain forests and amplifying climate change
• 2012/12/06: BBC: Ash dieback: Number of cases identified doubles in a month
  The government has given new details of the spread of the deadly fungus that is killing ash trees across the UK. There are now almost 300 confirmed cases, with the majority found in mature woodland sites, says the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
• 2012/12/05: al Jazeera: China timber trade ‘fuels climate change’
  The economic giant’s hunger for timber reportedly causes illegal destruction of forests needed to stop global warming.
• 2012/12/07: DD: Graph of the Day: Value of Logs and Sawn Timber Imports Into China From All Countries, 2000-2011
• 2012/12/06: P3: Tree Mortality High a Decade After Drought
• 2012/12/07: SciNews(Au): The world’s big trees are dying
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Argument over river red gums as states plan ‘ecological thinning’
  A row has broken out over the Victorian and New South Wales Governments’ plans to remove large numbers of river red gums from along the Murray River. The state governments are planning a trial of what’s called ‘ecological thinning’ in hundreds of hectares of river red-gum forests in national parks on both sides of the river. An environment group says it’s logging by stealth…
• 2012/12/03: ForestsCC: Towards a consensus on carbon emissions from tropical deforestation
• 2012/12/03: UCSUSA:B: Scientists Reach Agreement on Emissions from Tropical Deforestation
• 2012/12/02: Eureka: ‘Come out of the forest’ to save the trees — Forestry experts have called for a new approach to managing land and tackling climate change…
  This week in the New Normal — extreme weather:
• 2012/12/05: ABC(Au): UN chief warns abnormal weather the ‘new normal’
• 2012/12/06: Grist: Severe weather can change minds — some minds, anyway
• 2012/12/07: ERW: Eastern US set for stormy ride – a new study shows that residents might have to brace themselves
• 2012/12/03: TP:JR: As Brutal Record Hurricane Season Ends, NBC Says It’s The New Normal Since Climate Change Is ‘Right Here, Right Now’
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): 50-minute super cell wreaks havoc on Tamworth
  Residents are still mopping up after Monday’s wild storm that ripped through Tamworth, bringing down power lines and cutting off electricity to thousands of homes. The “super cell” dumped hailstones bigger than golf balls across parts of the CBD. Around 3,500 customers lost power, and wind gusts up to 100km/h were measured at Tamworth Airport.
• 
  Rossby Waves? Blocking Patterns? Arctic Oscillation? What is the Arctic melt doing to our weather?

• 2012/12/05: ArcticNews: Arctic anomalies linked to extreme weather
  On the tornado front:
• 2012/12/06: CBC: Deadly tornado rips through Auckland, N.Z., suburbs — Storm kills 3, forces evacuations after widespread power outages
• 2012/12/06: BBC: Three people have been killed as a rare tornado ripped through western suburbs of the New Zealand city of Auckland
• 2012/12/06: ABC(Au): Three reported dead as ‘tornado’ blasts Auckland
  As for heatwaves and wild fires:
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): Crews continue to battle bushfires across Queensland
• 2012/12/06: ABC(Au): Dozens of bushfires rage across Queensland
• 2012/12/05: ABC(Au): Crews struggle to contain Darling Downs bushfire
  Fire authorities in Queensland are hoping for a further easing in conditions as they deal with a major bushfire on the western Darling Downs.
• 2012/12/05: ABC(Au): Crews battle to control two NSW bushfires
• 2012/12/07: IOTD: U.S. Wildfires 2012
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): Top End swelters as the Wet plays waiting game
• 2012/12/06: BBC: Wildfires fanned by invasive grass species
  New research indicates that a species of invasive grass is making wildfires in the western US larger, hotter and more frequent. Scientists say that a variety called cheatgrass dries out and burns more rapidly than other vegetation. They believe it has fuelled almost 80 % of the largest fires in the west over the last ten years.
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): Severe fire danger for Victoria
  Victorians are being told to prepare for severe fire danger this weekend, with higher temperatures and dry conditions around the state.
• 2012/12/08: P3: December Fire at 10000 Feet in Colorado
• 2012/12/07: NASA: Wildfires Light Up Western Australia
• 2012/12/09: ABC(Au): Stradbroke Island on bushfire alert
• 2012/12/09: ABC(Au): A large bushfire in central Victoria has killed 20 sheep and injured 100 others.
• 2012/12/04: NASA: Climate Models Project Increase in U.S. Wildfire Risk
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Electricity demands extreme amid Qld’s scorcher day
  Power demand in south-east Queensland has reached extreme levels as the heatwave takes hold. The temperature in Brisbane passed 30 degrees Celsius at 9:30am (AEST) on the way to an expected top of 39. By 11:00am, parts of the state’s west were already nudging 40 degrees, with Century Mine, Richmond and Mount Isa among the hottest.
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Fears southern Queensland bushfire threat worst in 10 years
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Blaze still burning near Bremer Bay
  Glaciers are melting:
• 2012/12/06: FaGP: Qaleraliq Glacier Retreat, Southern Greenland
• 2012/12/03: FaGP: Fork Glacier Retreat and Separation, Brooks Range, Alaska
• 2012/12/03: EarlyWarning: Latest Ice Sheet Mass Balance Estimates [Shepherd]
  Sea levels are rising:
• 2012/12/06: NOAA: New NOAA technical report reveals global sea level rise scenarios through 2100
• 2012/12/06: NOAA: Global Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States National Climate Assessment
• 2012/12/06: ABC(Au): King tides give sneak peek at sea rise future
  Coastal residents around Australia are being asked to photograph coming king tides to illustrate the potential impact of climate change on rising sea levels. The New South Wales and Tasmanian governments are jointly funding the Witness King Tides Project, which is being run by climate change organisation Green Cross Australia. On December 14, king tides will hit NSW and parts of the Tasmanian coast. Other states and territories will have their turn next year.
• 2012/12/07: SkS: Past 150,000 Years of Sea Level History Suggests High Rates of Future Sea Level Rise by Rob Painting
• 2012/12/06: USAToday: NOAA sees sea level rise of up to 6.6 feet by 2100
  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
• 2012/12/08: NatureNB: Carnegie scientists unveil initial data on Amazon drought
• 2012/12/07: SciNow: Widespread Devastation Found in 2010 Amazon Megadrought
• 2012/12/06: TMoS: Atmospheric River Hammers California
• 2012/12/05: NASA: Plant Stress Paints Early Picture of Drought
• 2012/12/06: NYT: Season Has Changed, but the Drought Endures
• 2012/12/04: CCentral: ‘Atmospheric River’ Piles Up Massive Rain, Snow & Winds
• 2012/12/03: NOAANews: New NOAA experimental tool offers customizable views of Great Lakes water level data — Researchers, educators, residents can compare decades of data on a single screen
• 2012/12/03: al Jazeera: California drenching
  More storms roll in on the pineapple express. We have seen three storms in less than a week drench northern California.
• 
  First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
  Second, put a price on carbon
  And elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2012/12/05: EurActiv: Fatih Birol: Energy efficiency is one of last options after Kyoto
  The chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has told EurActiv that energy savings are one of the “few valuable options” left for humankind to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, as he expects no global climate agreement before 2020.
• 2012/12/04: Guardian(UK): Lord Stern: developing countries must make deeper emissions cuts
• 2012/12/03: Guardian(UK): Break the grip of corporate power to secure our future by George Monbiot
  Neoliberal dogma forbids the intervention required to stop climate change. To save the planet we must articulate a new politics
• 2012/12/03: TP:JR: As Global CO2 Emissions Rise, Scientists Warn 2-Degree Target Is Nearly Out Of Reach: ‘We Need A Radical Plan’
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: You Can’t Fight Climate Change Without Rethinking The Economy
  Can cities take up the slack when nations shirk their responsibilities?
• 2012/12/05: NatureN: Megacities move to track emissions
  Scientists monitor greenhouse gases in urban areas as a first step to gauging success of climate initiatives worldwide.
• 
  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2012/12/05: TreeHugger: Behold, The Airship Really Is Reborn
• 2012/12/04: TheConversation: All aboard: the growth of global rail and our future cities
• 2012/12/04: GizMag: Aeroscraft dirigible airship prototype approaches completion
• 2012/12/04: EurActiv: France, Italy vow to press on with high-speed Alpine rail link
  The leaders of France and Italy pledged on Monday (3 December) to push ahead with a high-speed rail link between Lyon and Turin despite a row over EU spending.
• 2012/12/03: CalcRisk: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales at 15.5 million annual rate in November, Highest Since 2007
  As for carbon sequestration:
• 2012/12/06: EurActiv: ArcelorMittal buries Europe’s carbon storage hopes
  A decision by ArcelorMittal to pull out from the Ulcos “green” steelmaking project in France has effectively put an end to Europe’s ambitions of becoming a global leader in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology, according to a key lawmaker in the European Parliament. ArcelorMittal withdrew an application to use the Florange site in northern France for an EU pilot project in less polluting steel that Paris had hoped could keep two idled blast furnaces going. ArcelorMittal has been under fire for months in France over its plan to permanently shut its Florange furnaces on the grounds they are not economically viable.
• 2012/12/02: GEP: New Research Funding, Cost Analysis for UK CCS
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Environmentalists back carbon capture technology
  A network of 17 environmental lobbyists have come out publicly in support of carbon capture and storage technology, at the UN climate talks in Doha, Qatar.
• 
  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2012/12/08: GoogleG: At his AGU Tyndall Lecture: Raymond Pierrehumbert calls SRM geoengineering ideas “crazy”, and “barking mad”
• 2012/12/07: Reuters: Geo-engineering wins scant enthusiasm at U.N. climate talks
• 2012/12/07: DeSmogBlog: UN Climate Delegates Agree on Something: Geo-engineering Is No Solution
• 2012/12/03: ISD: ISU researchers explore the effects of biochar on downstream ecosystems
• 2012/12/05: Slate: Terraforming Earth by Kim Stanley Robinson
• 2012/12/05: ValleyAdvocate: The Devil’s in the Side Effects — Geoengineering solutions to climate change are dangerous, especially when unauthorized
• 2012/12/03: GEP: Views on Geoengineering from UNFCCC COP18 in Doha
• 2012/12/02: VJ: Geoengineering: An Interim Strategy to Curb Global Warming? A Talk With John Latham
• 2012/05/17: ACS: (ab$) Review of Methane Mitigation Technologies with Application to Rapid Release of Methane from the Arctic by Joshuah K. Stolaroff et al.
• 2012/11/12: ACS: (ab$) Albedo Impact on the Suitability of Biochar Systems To Mitigate Global Warming by Sebastian Meyer et al.
• 2012/11/29: NSB: Considering “Soft Geoengineering”
• 2012/12/01: BostonGlobe: [Letter] Reducing carbon emissions will not be enough to turn tide [geo eng]
• 2012/12/01: GC: The Immorality of Geoengineering
• 2012/12/02: Reuters: Geo-engineering wins scant enthusiasm at UN climate talks
  What’s new in restoration?
• 2012/12/08: CCurrents: The Bonn Challenge : Landscape Restoration Movement Approaches 50 Million Hectares
  While on the adaptation front:
• 2012/12/08: Grist: Surrounded by water on three sides, San Francisco fights to keep climate change at bay [adapt]
  Meanwhile in the journals:
• 2012/12/04: PNAS: (ab$) The Miocene mammal Necrolestes demonstrates the survival of a Mesozoic nontherian lineage into the late Cenozoic of South America by Guillermo W. Rougier et al.
• 2012/12/04: PNAS: (ab$) Mapping Greenland’s mass loss in space and time by Christopher Harig & Frederik J. Simons
• 2012/12/04: PNAS: (ab$) Meltwater routing and the Younger Dryas by Alan Condron & Peter Winsor
• 2012/12/04: PNAS: (letter$) Importance of freshwater injections into the Arctic Ocean in triggering the Younger Dryas cooling by James T. Teller
• 2012/12/04: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Lombi et al.: Clear effects of manufactured nanomaterials to soybean by John H. Priester et al.
• 2012/12/04: PNAS: (letter$) Evidence for effects of manufactured nanomaterials on crops is inconclusive by Enzo Lombia et al.
• 2012/12/04: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to McCollom: Methane generation during experimental serpentinization of olivine with respect to carbonate saturation by Christopher Ozea et al.
• 2012/12/04: PNAS: (letter$) Methane generation during experimental serpentinization of olivine by Thomas McCollom
• 2012/11/25: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Persistent inflow of warm water onto the central Amundsen shelf by L. Arneborg et al.
• 2012/12/04: ESDD: Climate change impact on available water resources obtained using multiple global climate and hydrology models by S. Hagemann et al.
• 2012/12/07: CP: Pollen-based reconstruction of Holocene vegetation and climate in southern Italy: the case of Lago Trifoglietti by S. Joannin et al.
• 2012/12/07: CP: Exploring the controls on element ratios in middle Eocene samples of the benthic foraminifera Oridorsalis umbonatus by C. F. Dawber & A. K. Tripati
• 2012/12/06: CP: Vegetation dynamics in the Northeastern Mediterranean region during the past 23 000 yr: insights from a new pollen record from the Sea of Marmara by V. Valsecchi et al.
• 2012/12/05: CPD: Iron fluxes to Talos Dome, Antarctica, over the past 200 kyr by P. Vallelonga et al.
• 2012/12/04: CPD: Glacial-interglacial dynamics of Antarctic firn columns: comparison between simulations and ice core air-N15 measurements by E. Capron et al.
• 2012/12/03: CPD: The Antarctic ice core chronology (AICC2012): an optimized multi-parameter and multi-site dating approach for the last 120 thousand years by D. Veres et al.
• 2012/12/04: Oxford:RPD: (ab$) Early in situ measurement of radioactive fallout in Fukushima City due to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident by Masashi Takada & Toshikazu Suzuki
• 2012/12/04: ACP: Long-term changes in lower tropospheric baseline ozone concentrations at northern mid-latitudes by D. D. Parrish et al.
• 2012/12/03: ACP: The effect of ENSO-induced rainfall and circulation changes on the direct and indirect radiative forcing from Indonesian biomass-burning aerosols by A. Chrastansky & L. D. Rotstayn
• 2012/12/03: ACP: Impact of mineral dust on cloud formation in a Saharan outflow region by L. Smoydzin et al.
• 2012/12/06: ACPD: Top-down estimate of surface flux in the Los Angeles Basin using a mesoscale inverse modeling technique: assessing anthropogenic emissions of CO, NOx and CO2 and their impacts by J. Brioude et al.
• 2012/12/05: ACPD: The MACC reanalysis: an 8-yr data set of atmospheric composition by A. Inness et al.
• 2012/12/05: ACPD: Comparison between summertime and wintertime Arctic Ocean primary marine aerosol properties by J. Zábori et al.
• 2012/12/04: ACPD: Evolution of particle composition in CLOUD nucleation experiments by H. Keskinen et al.
• 2012/12/03: ACPD: Estimating regional methane surface fluxes: the relative importance of surface and GOSAT mole fraction measurements by A. Fraser et al.
• 2012/12/03: NERC:NORA: Equivalence of greenhouse-gas emissions for peak temperature limits by Stephen M. Smith et al.
• 2012/12/04: NERC:NORA: Effects of CO2 injection on shallow groundwater resources : a hypothetical case study in the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer, UK by S.H. Bricker et al.
• 2012/12/05: NERC:NORA: Multi-decadal variability and trends in the temperature of the northwest European continental shelf: A model-data synthesis by Jason Holt et al.
• 2012/12/05: NERC:NORA: Integrated environmental modeling : a vision and roadmap for the future by Gerard F. Laniak et al.
• 2012/12/07: NERC:NORA: From acid rain to climate change by S. Reis et al.
• 2012/12/07: NERC:NORA: Modeling of glacier bed topography from glacier outlines, central branch lines, and a DEM by Frank Paul et al.
• 2012/12/07: CP: An ocean-ice coupled response during the last glacial: a view from a marine isotopic stage 3 record south of the Faeroe Shetland Gateway by J. Zumaque et al.
• 2012/12/07: ACPD: Elucidating multipollutant exposure across a complex metropolitan area by systematic deployment of a mobile laboratory by I. Levy et al.
• 2012/12/07: ACPD: Exceptional emissions of NH3 and HCOOH in the 2010 Russian wildfires by Y. R’Honi et al.
• 2012/12/07: ACPD: Climatology of middle atmospheric water vapour above the ALOMAR observatory in northern Norway by K. Hallgren et al.
• 2012/12/06: ACPD: Anthropogenic carbon dioxide source areas observed from space: assessment of regional enhancements and trends by O. Schneising et al.
• 2012/12/06: OSD: Exceptional dense water formation on the Adriatic shelf in the winter of 2012 by H. Mihanovic et al.
• 2012/12/07: TC: Calibration of a surface mass balance model for global-scale applications by R. H. Giesen & J. Oerlemans
• 2012/12/06: TC: The footprint of Asian monsoon dynamics in the mass and energy balance of a Tibetan glacier by T. Mölg et al.
• 2012/12/06: TC: Ground penetrating radar detection of subsnow slush on ice-covered lakes in interior Alaska by A. Gusmeroli & G. Grosse
• 2012/12/07: TCD: Mass balance, runoff and surges of the Bering Glacier, Alaska by W. Tangborn
• 2012/12/06: TCD: Hindcasting to measure ice sheet model sensitivity to initial states by A. Aschwanden et al.
• 2012/12/06: TCD: Ikaite crystal distribution in Arctic winter sea ice and implications for CO2 system dynamics by S. Rysgaard et al.
• 2012/11/01: SSRN: The Desperation Argument for Geoengineering by Stephen Gardiner
• 2012/11/28: Oceanography: A New Database to Explore the Findings from Large-Scale Ocean Iron Enrichment Experiments by Philip W. Boyd et al.
• 2012/12/03: GMD: Better constraints on the sea-ice state using global sea-ice data assimilation by P. Mathiot et al.
• 2012/12/03: TC: Remote sensing of sea ice: advances during the DAMOCLES project by G. Heygster et al.
• 2012/12/04: TCD: The role of cornice fall avalanche sedimentation in the valley Longyeardalen, Central Svalbard by M. Eckerstorfer et al.
• 2012/12/03: TCD: Gravity effect of glacial ablation in the Eastern Alps – observation and modeling by P. Arneitz et al.
• 2012/05/17: ACS: (ab$) Review of Methane Mitigation Technologies with Application to Rapid Release of Methane from the Arctic by Joshuah K. Stolaroff et al.
• 2012/11/12: ACS: (ab$) Albedo Impact on the Suitability of Biochar Systems To Mitigate Global Warming by Sebastian Meyer et al.
• 2012/12/03: AGWObserver: New research from last week 48/2012
• 2012/12/02: Nature:CC: (ab$) Long-term responses of North Atlantic calcifying plankton to climate change by Gregory Beaugrand et al.
• 2012/12/02: Nature:CC: (ab$) The relationship between personal experience and belief in the reality of global warming by Teresa A. Myers et al.
• 2012/12/02: Nature:CC: (ab$) The challenge to keep global warming below 2 °C by Glen P. Peters et al.
• 2012/12/: AMS: (ab$) Projected Increases in North Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Intensity from CMIP5 Models by Gabriele Villarini & Gabriel A. Vecchi
  And other significant documents:
• 2012/12/05: G&M: [491k pdf] Epic Fail: Canada’s Fishery Dilemma
• 2012/12/06: FAO: [link to 4.4 meg pdf] The State of Food and Agriculture 2012
• 2012/12/04: PI: [link to 2.3 meg pdf] ENGO and Conservation Group Outreach on Biomass — Position and rationale regarding the use of biomass for electricity/heat production
• 2012/11/: LBL: [link to 2.7 meg pdf] Tracking the Sun V An Historical Summary of the Installed Price of Photovoltaics in the United States from 1998 to 2011
• 2012/12/03: GermanWatch: [links to several pdfs] The Climate Change Performance Index 2013 — A comparison of the 58 top CO2 emitting nations
• 2012/12/03: OilChange: [link to 195k pdf] New Analysis: Fossil fuel subsidies five times greater than climate finance
  As for miscellaneous science:
• 2012/12/05: USDA:NRS: Site-specific, Long-term Research Expanding Understanding of Climate Change
• 2012/12/07: ScienceInsider: In Wake of Scathing Review of Fracking Report, University of Texas Revises Conflict of Interest Policies
• 2012/12/07: BBerg: Fracking-Study Conflicts Prompt Head of Institute to Quit
  University of Texas research that determined hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is safe was tainted by a conflict of interest involving the study’s lead investigator, an independent panel has concluded. After seeing the panel’s findings, the head of the Energy Institute, Raymond Orbach, said he would “assume full responsibility” and resigned his position though he remains on the faculty. The lead investigator, professor Charles Groat, has left the university and the study he oversaw has been withdrawn, according to a statement the school released yesterday.
• 2012/12/04: JCBaez: Mathematics of the Environment (Part 10)
  More DIY science:
• 2012/12/07: Moyhu: TempLS correlation with other indices.
• 2012/12/06: Moyhu: Using present expectation anomalies for station data
• 2012/12/06: SkS: DIY climate science: The Instrumental Temperature Record by Kevin C
• 2012/12/05: Moyhu: Visualizing the need for homogenization
• 2012/12/05: Moyhu: Station trends – more
• 2012/12/04: Moyhu: On Anomalies for Stations
• 2012/12/03: Moyhu: Monthly station surface temperature shown on globe
  What’s new in models?
• 2012/12/04: ERW: Atmospheric discrepancies persist in climate models
  Researchers in the US have failed to resolve discrepancies between the predictions of atmospheric models and temperatures measured in the tropical upper troposphere. Their latest effort imposed historical sea-surface temperatures as a “boundary condition” on the models, but the predictions for warming were still greater than satellite temperature measurements.
• 
  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Free Science?

• 2012/12/04: al Jazeera: Open access: Stakes are high at the debates over the future of scholarship
  Publishers and academics should look into how to spread the costs and make research outputs more accessible to everybody
• 
  Regarding Hansen:

• 2012/12/05: SF Gate: James Hansen blasts cap and trade
  In Memoriam – Jerry Mahlman:
• 2012/12/09: Wunderground:RR: Jerry Mahlman: Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things
  While at the UN:
• 2012/12/07: FAO: Council endorses hunger eradication as FAO’s number one goal
  Director-General says FAO set to make even greater contribution to fight against hunger
• 2012/12/03: UN: New UN report highlights value of indicators for transitioning to green economy
• 2012/12/04: TP:JR: WMO: Record Arctic Sea Ice Melt And Weather Extremes Show That ‘Climate Change Is Taking Place Before Our Eyes’
  The Fifth IPCC report is coming up:
• 2012/12/07: DerSpiegel: Rising Sea Levels and Less Rain — Better Science to Hone Climate Change Warnings
  The next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts won’t be released until late 2013. But insiders say that thanks to faster computers and better models, the report will offer more precise predictions and adjust anticipated changes in sea levels and precipitation.
• 2012/12/07: MoJo: Report: IPCC Is Underestimating Climate Threat
• 2012/12/06: TDC: IPCC, assessing climate risks, consistently underestimates
  Checking 20 years of projections by the foremost global climate science panel against reality finds that the group has consistently underestimated the pace and impacts of climate change – with severe consequences for the public it is tasked to inform.
• 2012/12/06: TDC: IPCC predictions: Then versus now
  Eight examples of where the IPCC has missed the mark on its predictions and projections
• 2012/12/06: SciAm: Climate Science Predictions Prove Too Conservative
• 2012/12/02: TP:JR: IPCC’s Planned Obsolescence: Fifth Assessment Report Will Ignore Crucial Permafrost Carbon Feedback!
  And on the carbon trading front:
• 2012/12/06: BBerg: California Carbon Permits Bids Averaged $15.60 Last Month
• 2012/12/05: BBerg: Deferred Phase 3 Carbon Sales [in EU-ETS] May Delay Price Fall, BNEF Says
• 2012/12/04: UCSUSA:B: California’s First Carbon Auction Generates Nearly $300 Million in Revenues
• 2012/12/03: EurActiv: Yvo de Boer: Put E150 per tonne price on carbon
  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
• 2012/12/04: EnvEcon: “A Reading for the Pigou Club”
• 2012/12/04: ERabett:BSD: A modest carbon tax has modest carbon reduction results
• 2012/12/03: Stoat: Time for carbon taxes?
  On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:
• 2012/12/09: OilDrum: Tech Talk – Iranian Oil and the Global Future
• 2012/12/08: Yahoo:Reuters: Some foreign firms still active in Iran’s energy sector: US report
  At least seven companies from China, India, South Korea and South Africa continued to have investments in Iran’s oil and gas sectors in 2012 even as Tehran came under international scrutiny for its nuclear ambitions, a U.S. government watchdog said on Friday. A new U.S. law signed in August gave the Obama administration the authority to sanction firms that help Iran develop its energy resources, a key source of revenue for the country.
• 2012/12/08: Asia Times: Sanctions make nuclear accord ‘unlikely’
• 2012/12/08: Asia Times: Iran tests America’s grasp of reality
  South [& East] China Sea tension persists:
• 2012/12/09: al Jazeera: Police break up anti-China rallies in Vietnam
  Vietnamese police detain at least 20 activists as hundreds protest China’s claim over oil and gas-rich South China Sea.
• 2012/12/08: Asia Times: China makes a splash with coastguard rules
• 2012/12/05: WSWS: South China Sea disputes flare up
• 2012/12/04: TMoS: Arms Race Update – Indian Navy to South China Sea
• 2012/12/03: Yahoo:Reuters: Indian navy prepared to deploy to South China Sea
  As the EU-ETS is applied to airlines, we will see who is serious about reducing carbon emissions:
• 2012/12/01: ArcticNews: Aviation Policies — The European Union’s policy on Aviation Emissions
  In the global competition for Rare Earths and other natural resources:
• 2012/11/29: Ames: Ames Laboratory scientists develop indium-free organic light-emitting diodes
  Remember that Argentina – YPF – Repsol business?
• 2012/12/03: BBC: The Spanish oil company, Repsol, which had its assets in Argentina seized in April, has taken its case to the World Bank’s arbitration body in Washington
  Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, ideology … etc.:
• 2012/12/07: UN: At meeting in Rome, UN officials stress link between food security and peace in Sahel
• 2012/12/07: FAO: Food security linked to peace in the Sahel – FAO Director-General — Famine in the region averted but more efforts needed
• 2012/12/05: TP:JR: The Intersection Of Climate And Security: Global Warming, Migration, And Conflict In South Asia
  The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
• 2012/12/04: MoJo: Climate Activist DeChristopher Barred From “Social Justice” Work
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: Tim DeChristopher Barred From “Social Justice” Work While on Parole
  Polls! We have polls!
• 2012/12/04: TP:JR: Poll: Superstorm Sandy Linked To Climate Change By 69% Of New Yorkers, Including 73% Of Independents
• 2012/12/03: NYT: Most New Yorkers Think Climate Change Caused Hurricane, Poll Finds
  Regarding Water Politics and Business:
• 2012/12/07: TMoS: America’s Mini-Civil Wars [over water]
• 2012/12/07: ABC(US): Drought Revives Old Water War Among River States
• 2012/12/07: ICN: Drought Revives Old Water Wars Among States that Depend on Missouri, Mississippi Rivers
• 2012/12/06: CCurrents: The Kaveri Water Dispute: A solution Is possible
  The dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over sharing Kaveri (Cauvery) waters is not about to be resolved soon. It originates in the 19th Century when India was ruled by Britain, with Madras Presidency having a definite edge over the princely State of Mysore. The dispute has only intensified with post Independence economic pressures of population growth and changes in agriculture. Though there are four states dependent on Kaveri water, the major dispute is between upper riparian Karnataka and lower riparian Tamil Nadu.
• 2012/12/06: JFleck: Nationalism on the Lower Colorado
• 2012/12/05: JFleck: In Texas, water policy is a front burner political issue
• 2012/12/05: JFleck: Possible San Juan-Chama water shortages
• 2012/12/07: BBerg: Army Rejects Plea to Boost Water for Mississippi Barges
  And on the groundwater front:
• 2012/12/06: ERW: Groundwater pumping and irrigation have similar effect to climate change
  Groundwater pumping and irrigation are already causing effects on water budgets similar to those that climate change is likely to bring. That is according to researchers in the US, who modelled a watershed in the semi-arid Southern Great Plains area of North America.
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Scientists crack water table puzzle – the depth at which groundwater extraction starts to kill or harm trees
  And on the American political front:
• 2012/12/06: ICN: Spreading Like Wildfire, Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign Striking a Moral Chord
  The primary aim of student-led campaign at 150-plus universities is to make climate change the moral issue of the generation.
• 2012/12/04: IthacaJournal: Binghamton appeals fracking moratorium decision
• 2012/12/05: TreeHugger: Did Arizona Governor Punch a Reporter? No, But She Doesn’t Like Being Questioned About Global Warming
• 2012/12/05: DemNow: From Fossil Fuels to Global Warming Denial, Koch Brothers May Be Biggest Force Behind U.S. Inaction
• 2012/12/07: TMoS: America’s Mini-Civil Wars [over water]
• 2012/12/07: ABC(US): Drought Revives Old Water War Among River States
• 2012/12/07: ICN: Drought Revives Old Water Wars Among States that Depend on Missouri, Mississippi Rivers
• 2012/12/07: TP:JR: 7 Ways Looming Budget Cuts To Public Lands And Oceans Will Affect Americans
• 2012/12/04: CCP: Justin Gillis, NYT: Students for Divestment from Fossil Fuel Stocks at Harvard, Swarthmore, Unity and Hampshire Colleges
• 2012/12/04: DeSmogBlog: ALEC, CSG, ExxonMobil Fracking Fluid “Disclosure” Model Bill Failing By Design
• 2012/12/04: TP:JR: Oil ‘Advocate’ Mary Landrieu On Drilling: ‘You Don’t Have To Drill On Every Square Inch Of Land’
• 2012/12/04: ICN: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) Denies Man-Made Global Warming
• 2012/12/04: UCSUSA:B: California’s First Carbon Auction Generates Nearly $300 Million in Revenues
• 2012/12/02: Grist: Getting ready for climate change: How the West Coast can lead the way
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: $550 Million Coming Each Year to Green California Schools, Public Buildings
• 2012/12/02: GLaden: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer: “Global Warming Is Caused By … Things”
  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
• 2012/12/04: EneNews: New Study: BP using Corexit in Gulf made oil up to 50 times more toxic – Industry likes it so much, companies are stocking up for next disaster
• 2012/12/07: DeSmogBlog: Oil Connected Judge Shields Dispersant Maker From Gulf Lawsuits
• 2012/12/03: NOAANews: Research, response for future oil spills: Lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon
• 2012/12/03: DD: Dispersant made oil 50 times more toxic to Gulf of Mexico microorganisms
• 2012/12/03: TP:JR: Study: Dispersant Made Oil 50 Times More Toxic To Gulf Of Mexico Microorganisms
• 2012/12/01: TPR: BP to Shareholders: We’re Already Working With EPA to Lift Federal Contract Ban
  Post-Sandy commentary and news:
• 2012/12/07: TP:JR: Congress Takes On Sandy: ‘The Elephant In This Room Is The Impact Of Climate Change’
• 2012/12/07: BBC: Sandy: Barack Obama asks Congress for $60bn
• 2012/12/05: WSWS: Hurricane Sandy compounds crisis facing public schools in New York City
• 2012/12/04: CBS: New York City Hits Sandy Victims With ‘Failure To Maintain’ Property Citation
• 2012/12/03: ICH: Katrina, All Over Again by Chris Hedges
  [...] Hurricane Sandy, if you are poor, is the Katrina of the North.
• 2012/12/05: BBC: Sandy: Barack Obama ‘to seek $50bn aid from Congress’
• 2012/12/05: Guardian(UK): Citigroup slashes 11,000 jobs as Sandy hits US employment growth
• 2012/12/04: TP:JR: Poll: Superstorm Sandy Linked To Climate Change By 69% Of New Yorkers, Including 73% Of Independents
• 2012/12/03: KSJT: The New York Times: Why did nursing homes in threatened areas fail to evacuate before Sandy?
• 2012/12/01: FDL: NYC Threatens to Shut Down Occupy Sandy Relief Sites
  Yanks got a lot of bad press at Doha:
• 2012/12/07: DemNow: “The Most Obdurate Bully in the Room”: U.S. Widely Criticized for Role at Climate Talks
• 2012/12/06: CCurrents: U.S. Failure To Act Swiftly On Global Warming Imperils The U.S. And The World
• 2012/12/05: DemNow: Amy Goodman Questions Top U.S. Negotiator on Alleged Obstruction of U.N. Climate Talks in Doha
  The Keystone XL saga grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:
• 2012/12/05: Grist: Hundreds of Nebraskans speak out against Keystone XL pipeline
• 2012/12/03: CSM: Pressure on Obama grows for Keystone XL decision
  With the deficit hawks panicking about the fiscal cliff, there has been talk of a carbon tax solution:
• 2012/12/07: KSJT: All of a sort-of-sudden, the supposedly forbidden carbon tax is getting good press…
• 2012/12/04: Grist: In defense of a carbon tax
• 2012/12/06: TP:JR: In-Depth Analysis: How A Progressive Carbon Tax Will Fight Climate Change And Stimulate The Economy
  The birth control battle is ongoing. See also:
• 2012/12/07: UCSUSA:B: Fixing an Obama Administration Mistake on Emergency Contraception and Science
  Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration’s decision to prevent the FDA from using the best available science in evaluating the emergency contraception drug Plan B. It was a setback in the Obama administration’s pledge to restore science to its rightful place and listen to scientists “even when it is inconvenient-especially when it is inconvenient.” In the interim, evidence has been mounting that the administration’s decision has placed unnecessary barriers to access to Plan B. It’s time for the administration to allow the FDA to revisit the decision.
• 
  The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:

• 2012/12/04: Reuters: Asia coal export boom brings no bonus for US taxpayers
  U.S. miners who are booking big profits on coal sales to Asia are enjoying an accounting windfall to boot. By valuing coal at low domestic prices rather than the much higher price fetched overseas, coal producers can dodge the larger royalty payout when mining federal land.
• 
  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2012/12/07: CSW: Obama 2.0 — Now what?
• 2012/12/06: CSW: Message to enviro groups: No more co-optation by Obama on climate change
  During Obama’s first term environmental groups were complicit in enabling what became years of ‘climate silence,’ by allowing themselves to be co-opted by a White House messaging strategy to talk about ‘clean energy’ but not climate change. It’s time they reclaim a position of politically independent integrity.
• 2012/12/06: UCSUSA:B: President Obama: Keep Your Promise to Our Children, Commit to Making the Half the Oil Plan a Reality
• 2012/12/06: DemNow: “We Are Running Out of Time”: Obama Urged to Match Rhetoric to Action on Climate Deal
• 2012/12/06: Yahoo:Reuters: Gore raps Obama on climate change in post-Sandy speech
  Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Thursday sharply criticized President Barack Obama, a fellow Democrat, for failing to make global warming a priority issue, saying action was more urgent than ever after the devastation in the Northeast from Superstorm Sandy. “I deeply respect our president and I am grateful for the steps that he has taken, but we cannot have four more years of mentioning this occasionally and saying it’s too bad that the Congress can’t act,” Gore told the New York League of Conservation Voters.
• 2012/12/04: Guardian(UK): Obama urged by environmental groups to take on climate change in next term
• 2012/12/04: Grist: Obama can tackle climate in his second term, and he doesn’t need Congress to do it
  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
• 2012/12/04: WaPo: Environmental group [NRDC] seeks to curb emissions from existing [coal] power plants
• 2012/12/06: TP:JR: Study: We Can Cut Carbon Pollution One Third By Closing ‘Carbon Loophole’ Through The Clean Air Act
• 2012/12/06: TP:JR: Carol Browner: ‘Stunning’ Climate Denial In The House Prevents Any Action On Climate In Washington
• 2012/12/06: Grist: Food safety fail: Why isn’t the agency in charge of keeping us safe succeeding?
• 2012/12/05: BPA: Biofuels: A Partnership Between Our Military and Our Department of Agriculture
• 2012/12/05: CSM: Energy Department pushes for electric car battery research
• 2012/12/07: ScienceInsider: U.S. Should Grow Agricultural Research Spending, White House Panel Recommends
• 2012/12/07: AutoBG: DOE’s new Energy Storage Hub a “Manhattan Project” for better batteries
  This could be big. The US Department of Energy has announced a five-year, $120-million award for a team of 14 companies, universities and national laboratories led by Argonne National Laboratory that will be charged with creating next-generation batteries for use in vehicles and the grid. In short, a sort of “Manhattan Project” for advanced EV packs. Officially called the Batteries and Energy Storage Hub, aka the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), was announced by US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu as well as Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. As you might guess for that list, the Argonne National Laboratory is in Illinois.
• 2012/12/07: BBerg: Army Rejects Plea to Boost Water for Mississippi Barges
• 2012/12/04: NatureN: US advisers seek research overhaul — Report calls for stable funding and industry collaborations
• 2012/12/04: HuffPo: Nuclear Power Whistleblowers Charge Federal Regulators With Favoring Secrecy Over Safety
• 2012/12/03: NOAANews: NOAA, California partner to improve forecasts of powerful ‘atmospheric river’ winter storms
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: Department of Justice Quietly Stops Investigating Monsanto for Antitrust Violations
• 2012/12/02: TP:JR: One Easy Agenda Item On Climate: OMB Should Release DOE Energy Efficiency Rules
• 2012/12/03: NOAANews: New NOAA experimental tool offers customizable views of Great Lakes water level data — Researchers, educators, residents can compare decades of data on a single screen
  As for what is going on in Congress:
• 2012/12/05: DeSmogBlog: Rep. Markey Raises Big Questions About Shell’s Containment Dome Fail
• 2012/12/05: TP:JR: Filthy Five: New House Energy Committee Members Ignore Climate While Taking $1.7 Million From Fossil Fuels
• 2012/12/07: TP:JR: GOP Energy Chair Received Last-Minute Big Oil Donations After Hinting Oil Subsidies Could End
• 2012/12/08: TP:JR: U.S. Senator Protests Climate Talks With Activist Who Believes The UN Is The Anti-Christ
• 2012/12/04: DD: U.S. House committee leaders deny climate change while extreme weather devastates their states
• 2012/12/03: TheHill:e2W: Senate Dems push climate change amendment
  Senate Democrats are attempting to force a vote on climate change through an amendment to the defense authorization bill. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-R.I.) amendment calls for the U.S. to “assess, plan for, and mitigate the security and strategic implications of climate change” out of concern for national security.
• 2012/12/02: BBerg: Keep Satellites Aloft to Be Ready for Bad Weather Below
  Thanks to an unbroken stream of atmospheric and oceanic measurements beamed to Earth from well- positioned satellites, meteorologists were able to predict Hurricane Sandy’s monstrous power and strange path (tropical storms typically turn right, not left) long before it hit the New Jersey coast. It’s the kind of precision we might assume can only get better, as scientists fine-tune their instruments and forecast models. Instead, in a few years, weather predictions in the U.S. are in danger of becoming less accurate. Why? Because the federal government is unprepared, at least temporarily, to operate a full complement of satellites.
• 
  While in the UK:

• 2012/12/06: BBC: Gas power stations given go-ahead
  Chancellor George Osborne has approved the building of over 30 new gas-fired power stations to replace the UK’s ageing coal, nuclear and gas stations. The new capacity could produce up to 26 gigawatts (GW) of electricity by 2030, a net increase of 5GW. The plans will dismay environmentalists who want more emphasis placed on lower-carbon, renewable energy sources.
• 2012/12/05: ScienceInsider: U.K. Government Injects Nearly $1 Billion Into Research
• 2012/12/05: OilChange: UK Set to Frack, Baby, Frack
• 2012/12/05: Guardian(UK): Caroline Flint: ‘We have to find a way to bring the public with us on climate’
  Bibi van der Zee meets Caroline Flint, Labour’s shadow secretary on energy and climate change
• 2012/12/04: Guardian(UK): George Osborne’s dash for gas sets common sense ablaze
• 2012/12/04: Guardian(UK): Gas strategy should be ‘plan Z’, government’s climate adviser warns
• 2012/12/04: Guardian(UK): UK pledges £133m more for Africa to tackle climate change
• 2012/12/04: TreeHugger: UK Economy Will Fare Better With More Wind Power Than Natural Gas: Report
• 2012/12/04: BBC: Nuclear power: EDF extends life of two UK plants
  EDF Energy is extending the operational life of two of its UK nuclear power stations by seven years. Hinkley Point B in Somerset, and Hunterston B in North Ayrshire, are now expected to remain operational until 2023. Both had been due to cease generation in 2016. Two other nuclear plants, Heysham in Lancashire, and Hartlepool had their life extended by two years in 2010.
• 2012/12/03: Guardian(UK): Four reasons to hope we can still avert the worst impacts of climate change by Ed Davey, UK DECC Secretary
• 2012/12/02: Guardian(UK): Energy firms call for clear carbon emissions targets
  Call comes after ministers refused to put target for decarbonising UK power sector into last week’s energy bill
• 
  And in Europe:

• 2012/12/07: BBC: ‘Hot-air’ release at Doha climate talks dispels tension
  Details have emerged of a deal to solve the “hot air” row undermining the EU in the UN climate change talks in Doha. The term refers to unused, tradeable carbon emission permits given to Eastern European nations. They are among a number of issues that threaten to stall progress at the talks, due to end on Friday evening.
• 2012/12/05: EurActiv: EU palm oil approval threatens Indonesia’s forests, NGOs say
  The decision by the European Commission to approve a certification scheme for palm oil has been condemned by environmental groups, which say the biofuel is driving deforestation in Indonesia and other countries, and should be banned in the European Union.
• 2012/12/04: CCurrents: Urgent Action Needed To Combat European Climate Change
• 2012/12/06: DerSpiegel:Europe Shouldn’t Try So Hard to Save the Planet – Interview with German government advisor Kai Konrad
• 2012/12/04: EurActiv: EU countries still at odds over 2030 renewables policy
  Energy ministers from the 27 EU countries pledged to maintain momentum for a post-2020 renewables policy framework after a meeting in Brussels yesterday (3 December), but behind the formulaic words, old divisions remained.
• 2012/12/03: EurActiv: Yvo de Boer: Put E150 per tonne price on carbon
  Urgent action is needed to boost carbon prices to E150 per tonne – 2,250% higher than current levels – if the EU is to meet its decarbonisation goals by 2050, the former secretary-general of the UNFCCC has told EurActiv in an interview.
• 2012/12/02: LeitrimObserver: EU Public Consultation on fracking in 2013
  A public consultation on the impact of fracking is expected across Europe next year. According to Independent MEP Marian Harkin The European Environment Commissioner Janus Potocnik has committed to an impact assessment in 2013, part of which will be a very significant public consultation, which will give citizens an opportunity to make their views known.
• 
  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2012/12/06: ABC(Au):TDU: Looking to China for our clean energy future
• 2012/12/06: PlanetJ: Climate deregulation still on agenda
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Argument over river red gums as states plan ‘ecological thinning’
  
  The carbon bill is law. The Aus-EU ETS is codified. Now come the practicalities…and the finagling:
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Billion-dollar carbon credit trading estimate ‘plausible’
  The CSIRO believes carbon credit trading in the country’s north could generate a billion dollars a year. The science body has released a study which has identified reducing emissions from fire and livestock, biosequestration in soils and growing sustainable feedstocks for aviation biofuel as the key areas of opportunity for northern communities and businesses.
• 
  Tell me this electricity price plan is not a political ploy:

• 2012/12/08: ABC(Au): Power bills: you will save money
  Australia’s energy regulator is confident freshly minted reforms to the electricity industry will save households money. State and federal leaders agreed on a suite of changes at the Council of Australian Governments meeting yesterday. Under the plan, the industry watchdog is set to receive a big boost in funding.
• 2012/12/08: ABC(Au): Consumer advocates cheer COAG power price plan
• 2012/12/07: TheConversation: The PM’s electricity plan: it’s a Band-Aid not a cure
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): COAG signs on to PM’s power price plan
  Federal and state leaders have agreed on a plan aimed at curbing power price rises, which Prime Minister Julia Gillard says will save households about $250 a year once it is fully implemented. The agreement, reached during today’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting, does not involve the mandatory rollout of so-called smart meters. But Ms Gillard says all states have agreed to work on options for more flexible pricing.
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): Water Commissioner says NSW should get more money for irrigation upgrades
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Federal-state relations threaten power price action
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): PM’s electricity reforms will not affect WA
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Power price rises foreshadowed in wake of PM’s plan to cut bills
  What the Prime Minister giveth, the market taketh away.
  It seems that Julia Gillard’s plans to save consumers $250 a year on power bills may already have been sandbagged in New South Wales. The reason – plans for more price rises for many consumers in the very state which Federal Labor has identified as crucial to its hopes for re-election next year. One of the biggest electricity suppliers, Energy Australia, has outlined plans to put prices up by 10.5 per cent over the next three years.
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Tipped price rises may sandbag PM’s power play
  It seems Julia Gillard’s plans to save consumers $250 a year on power bills may already have been sandbagged in New South Wales. There are more price rises in the offing for many consumers in the state which Federal Labor has identified as crucial to its hopes for re-election next year. One of NSW’s biggest electricity suppliers, Energy Australia, has outlined plans to put prices up by 10.5 per cent over the next three years. At the weekend, Ms Gillard announced a reform package in which she wants to give more funding to the national energy regulator and set up new consumer groups to keep power prices down.
• 
  After years of wrangling the Murray Darling Basin plan is in place. Now the real fight begins:

• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): A basin half full
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Victoria the sticking point in Basin Plan negotiations, says SA
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Desal plant passes hurdle
  The Wonthaggi desalination plant has passed a test that says it is commercially acceptable. An independent regulator has deemed the plant has a 50-year design life. The plant will now need to run at full capacity continuously for 30 days to pass a reliability test. If the plant passes that test, it will be shut down because the Victorian Government has not ordered any water.
• 2012/12/03: ABC(Au): Consumers confront retailers about water price hike
  Angry Melbourne consumers have confronted the city’s water retailers about their soaring bills at a public forum. Average household water bills will jump by nearly $300 next year, mostly to cover costs relating to the Wonthaggi desalination plant.
• 
  While in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2012/12/06: IndiaTimes: Nod to set up six nuclear power plants at Jaitapur
  The government has given approval for setting up six nuclear power plants with assistance from French company Areva at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy told the Rajya Sabha today. He said during Question Hour that work on two units of 1,650 MW each is expected to start in the current Plan period.
• 2012/12/05: DD: Global warming worries Indians
• 2012/12/05: NatureN: Flood of protest hits Indian dams — Himalayan plans pose ecological threat, researchers warn
• 2012/12/04: CCurrents: True Chingaris
• 2012/12/03: TP:JR: Why India’s Coal Plans Are An Illusion
  And in Japan:
• 2012/12/04: ABC(Au): Fukushima kick-off for Japan election campaign
  The leaders of two of Japan’s biggest political parties have chosen to kick off their election campaigns in Fukushima.
• 
  In Canada, neocon PM Harper pushes petroleum while ignoring climate change:

• 2012/12/07: DeSmogBlog: Little Black Lie: Canada is “Doing Its Part”
• 2012/12/06: PostMedia: Canada would rather adapt than reduce emissions — Economy clearly top of mind in Ottawa as government ‘balances’ climate and job growth concerns
• 2012/12/07: Rabble:EM: Newsflash: Lake Winnipeg is in serious trouble
• 2012/12/07: BCLSB: Study In Place Of Action
• 2012/12/06: TStar: Global warming? (Yawn). We don’t care about that any more.
• 2012/11/29: PostMedia: Top federal bureaucrats stayed mum during discussion about silencing of scientists
  At first, a top Environment Canada official seemed game to discuss “unmuzzling” government scientists during an international science conference earlier this year. “I would be very interested in participating,” Karen Dodds, an assistant deputy minister, said by email to colleagues when she received an invitation to sit on a panel aimed at opening the lines of communications between the news media and federal scientists. Instead, she sat in the audience as a spectator during the session at the Vancouver conference, and was informed she should refer questions about the government’s strict communication policy to Ottawa, where a government “tactics” committee was working on a response, according to documents obtained by Postmedia News under the Access to Information Act.
• 
  The Polaris Institute kicked off a bit of a storm when they revealed the extent of petroleum lobbying in Ottawa:

• 2012/11/27: Polaris: Big Oil’s Oily Grasp
  New report shows oil industry had 2,733 meetings with the federal public office holders since 2008, 463% more than environmental groups
• 2012/12/04: DeSmogBlog: “Big Oil’s Oily Grasp”: Polaris Institute Documents Harper Government Entanglement with Tar Sands Lobby
• 2012/12/05: Tyee: Canada’s Petro Lobbyists Grow Faster than Pipelines — Nation’s lobbying laws among the weakest, energy industry gets top access
• 2012/12/06: TMoS: Think You Don’t Live in a Conservative/Liberal/New Democrat Petro-State? Think Again.
• 2012/12/04: G&M: Face time on the Hill: The energy lobby’s pipeline to Ottawa
  The Canadian energy industry has forged unrivalled access to the federal government among major industries, as key companies and their associations met frequently with politicians and senior bureaucrats in recent years to craft common messages and discuss regulatory changes, a new report shows. In just one year to this September, senior industry officials held 791 separate meetings with ministers, members of Parliament and officials even as the federal government was pursuing major regulatory changes that critics claim amount to a gutting of environmental protection, according to a study of the lobbyist registry by the Polaris Institute, a left-leaning, Ottawa-based think tank.
• 
  Harper has approved the Petronas-Progress deal:

• 2012/12/07: BBerg: Canada Approves Both Cnooc-Nexen, Petronas-Progress Deals
  Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper approved Cnooc Ltd.’s $15.1 billion takeover of Nexen Inc. and Petroliam Nasional Bhd.’s C$5.2 billion ($5.2 billion) takeover of Progress Energy Resources Corp.
• 2012/12/04: CBC: Petronas-Progress LNG project moves ahead — Plan calls for three plants to handle 3.8M tonnes each
  Petronas and Progress Energy Resources Corp. said Tuesday that a detailed feasibility study for a liquefied natural gas export facility on Lelu Island is complete and the project is moving into the next phase. The companies said work is started on the pre front-end engineering design phase in an effort to further understand construction timelines, costs and labour force requirements. The advancement of the project near Prince Rupert, B.C., comes as Petronas, a Malaysian state-owned oil company, continues its efforts to buy Progress in a deal valued at $6 billion. An initial attempted was rejected by the federal government under the Investment Canada Act, however Petronas has since made changes and resubmitted its proposal.
• 
  Harper has approved the CNOOC-Nexen deal:

• 2012/12/07: NatPo: Andrew Coyne: Stephen Harper’s foreign takeover policy no longer just murky, but totally incoherent
• 2012/12/08: Tyee: Nexen Cave-in: Chairman Harper’s Economic Desperation
  Selling bitumen fast, while it’s still hot, is the prime minister’s myopic motivation.
• 2012/12/08: Reuters: Canada OK’s foreign energy takeovers, but slams door on any more
  Canada approved China’s biggest ever foreign takeover on Friday, a $15.1 billion bid by state-controlled CNOOC Ltd for energy company Nexen Inc., but drew a line in the sand against future buys by state-owned enterprises.
• 2012/12/08: MSimon: Stephen Harper and the Big Sellout
• 2012/12/08: CBC: Industry minister explains worrisome ‘trend’ in the oilsands
  The federal government has reached “a level of discomfort” with foreign investment by state-owned enterprises in Canada’s energy sector. That’s the message Canada’s Industry Minister is emphasizing after giving the green light to two major takeover deals: a $15.1-billion bid for Nexen Inc. by a Chinese state oil company and a $5.2-billion bid by Malaysia’s Petronas for Progress Energy.
• 2012/12/08: CBC: Greg Weston: Harper draws a line in the tarsands, for now
• 2012/12/07: SixthEstate: Canada’s Oil Sands Run Red
  You probably don’t need me to tell you that selling a controlling stake in this country’s largest energy resource to a foreign dictatorship is not really a good plan. We don’t even trust our own government with that kind of thing.
• 2012/12/07: DeSmogBlog: Harper Government Approves Foreign Acquisition of Nexen, Progress Energy, Affirms FIPA Concerns
• 2012/12/07: TStar: Prime Minister Stephen Harper vows Chinese takeover of oil firm Nexen ‘the end of a trend’
• 2012/12/07: TMoS: Steve’s Friday Night Special – China Gets Nexen
• 2012/12/07: al Jazeera: Canada approves energy takeovers worth $20bn
  Prime minister vows to block future foreign takeovers after Chinese and Malaysian state-owned firms buy oil companies. Canada has approved two major takeovers of energy firms by Chinese and Malaysian state-owned bidders but vowed to reject any future foreign takeovers Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday announced regulatory approval for Chinese CNOOC’s $15.1bn takeover of oil and gas company Nexen, and Malaysian Petronas’ offer for gas producer Progress Energy Resources, estimated at $5.5 billion.
• 2012/12/07: BBC: Nexen sale to China’s CNOOC backed by Canada government
• 2012/12/07: CBC: Government OKs foreign bids for Nexen, Progress Energy
  Bids by future state-owned enterprises in tarsands to be approved only in exceptional circumstances
• 2012/12/06: BBerg: Harper Was Told Nexen Would Give CNOOC Stake in Key Asset
  CNOOC Ltd. $15.1 billion takeover of Nexen Inc. (NXY) would give the Chinese company the largest stake of an oil field in the North Sea that “has increasingly influenced” global oil prices, according to a memo sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper by Canada’s top government worker. Nexen says it controls 43 percent of the Buzzard oil field in the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland. Buzzard, which began production in 2007, is the largest discovery off the U.K. in the past two decades, according to Nexen’s website.
• 2012/12/05: PostMedia: Ottawa’s CNOOC-Nexen decision deadline could be extended: Paradis
  Industry Minister Christian Paradis said Wednesday the Dec. 10 deadline for the federal government to decide on CNOOC Ltd.’s $15.1-billion takeover bid of Nexen Inc. “could be extended.” “Yes, this is the deadline. It could be extended. All I can say is that it’s under review,” Mr. Paradis told reporters in Ottawa.
• 2012/12/04: PostMedia: Canada’s energy puzzle
  There are more pieces to the Canadian energy policy puzzle than can be imagined, but three that are most important: First, exploiting our resource riches, notably the oilsands, in an environmentally sustainable manner. In policy shorthand, this is called “clean energy.” Second, developing markets beyond the United States, which now accounts for more than 99 per cent of our energy exports. This means transporting these commodities by pipeline or rail to be shipped overseas in tankers. Third, foreign investment. Canadians welcome foreign direct investment in the oilpatch, but they are concerned about foreign ownership of the resource. An Ipsos poll for the Canadian Council of Chief Executives found that “76 per cent said they are worried that increased foreign investment could cause Canada to lose control of its natural resources.” To be clear, it’s not American investment Canadians are concerned about. It’s Chinese investment.
• 
  The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

• 2012/12/07: PI:B: Is Enbridge missing the point of the Gateway hearings?
  And the Kinder Morgan expansion:
• 2012/12/04: TheCanadian: Report: Kinder Morgan Pipeline Operator Ignored Alarms During Recent Abbotsford Spill
  Canada’s embarassment at Doha is unrelenting:
• 2012/12/07: CAN: Canada and New Zealand tie for the infamous Colossal Fossil 2012 award
• 2012/12/05: PostMedia: Environment Minister Peter Kent touts Harper government’s climate record at summit
  Environment Minister Peter Kent touted the federal government’s progress in tackling greenhouse gas emissions Wednesday as he addressed an international climate change summit in Doha, Qatar. He also suggested that the private sector must play a “critical” role in the future. Figures released by his department in August estimated that Canada’s annual heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions would be about 20 per cent above the target pledged by Prime Minister Stephen Harper under the 2009 Copenhagen agreement. But Kent told delegates at the United Nations summit that Canada was halfway toward closing the gap and meeting its goal.
• 2012/12/04: DeSmogBlog: Canadian Youth Delegation: Tar Sands Creating “Commitment Issues” for Canada at COP18
• 2012/12/03: VanObs: Canada ranked as worst performer in the developed world on climate change
• 2012/12/03: CAN: Canada ranked as worst performer in the developed world on climate change
• 2012/12/03: TMoS: Canada ‘Worst Developed Nation” on Climate Change
  The ISA/PRV/IHN/Alpha virus in Canadian waters is potentially disastrous:
• 2012/12/07: AlexandraMorton: Letter to Director General of OIE
• 2012/12/07: NI: Those in the way may end up in jail
• 2012/12/05: G&M: [491k pdf] Epic Fail: Canada’s Fishery Dilemma
• 2012/12/02: G&M: B.C.’s salmon guardian needs you to listen — before it’s too late
  He’s 88 and admits to failing health, but Ron MacLeod’s mind remains as sharp as a well-honed fish hook and his passion for protecting salmon is undiminished. Proof of that lies in a brilliant paper he has just written with long-time colleague Al Wood that he hopes will stir a public outcry against government.
• 2012/12/03: TheMudReport: Paper by Fisheries Experts Ron MacLeod and Al Wood Asks, “Who Speaks for the Salmon?”
  In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?
• 2012/12/07: PostMedia: Lower Mainland food supply at risk from rising sea levels
  UBC prof says agriculture could be profoundly affected by the effect of climate change on crops.
  Rising sea levels could jeopardize the Lower Mainland’s food supply, a University of B.C. professor says. Stephen Sheppard said agriculture in the area could be profoundly affected by rising water tables, increased salinity, and the effect of climate change on crops, such as different growing seasons or temperatures. “All of these things together will probably change the face of agriculture as we know it in the Lower Mainland in this century,” said Sheppard, professor in landscape architecture and forest resources management at UBC.
• 2012/12/06: CBC: Haisla split with Coastal First Nations over LNG project
  The Haisla First Nation has parted ways with an aboriginal advocacy group, saying its interests no longer align with Coastal First Nations. A Haisla chief said his members left the coalition of about a dozen bands from the north and central coast of B.C. over the group’s opposition to some of the liquefied natural gas plants to be built in Kitimat. The two sides are also at odds over the Haisla nation’s decision to meet recently with Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.
• 2012/12/05: TheCanadian: Sustainable Transportation Experts Call New Port Mann Bridge Antiquated Thinking
• 2012/12/05: TheCanadian: National Geographic: BC’s Great Bear Rainforest One of World’s Top Destinations
• 2012/12/05: TheCanadian: Yet Another LNG Plant Proposed for BC: Petronas and Progress’ $9 Billion Plan for Prince Rupert
• 2012/12/05: TheCanadian: Rafe: BC Liberal Government Corrupt
  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
• 2012/12/04: PI:B: Tarsands emissions lie at the core of Canada’s climate challenge
• 2012/12/02: G&M: They could fix the oil sands, but haven’t
  “Mommy, did you hear the news? They fixed the oil sands.” My nine-year-old son explained to me over dinner the other day what he’d seen on TV
  [...]
  We all want to believe it’s possible to just “fix it.” Unfortunately, slick ads claiming a cure for the environment offer nothing but a false sense of security for Canadians. In reality, little has changed on the ground.
• 2012/12/03: BCLSB: Problems With “Ethical Oil” (The Book)
  While in Saskatchewan:
• 2012/12/05: CBC: Saskatchewan oilpatch cleanup too slow, auditor says
• 2012/12/07: CBC: Glencore takeover of Viterra gets final approval
  The Swiss company Glencore has cleared the final hurdle in its takeover of Saskatchewan’s Viterra Inc.
• 
  Now that Dalton has quit, the Liberal leadership is in play and then probably an election:

• 2012/12/04: BCLSB: An Award For NIMBYISM
  In the Maritimes:
• 2012/12/07: CBC: N.L. loses Abitibi case in Canada’s top court
  Supreme Court rejects appeal on $100M of environmental liabilities at shuttered mill The Supreme Court of Canada says a bankrupt company doesn’t have to pay to clean up the environmental mess it left at a mill in Newfoundland and Labrador. The case concerns Resolute Forest Products, formerly known as AbitibiBowater. The provincial government expropriated the company’s assets after it closed a pulp and paper mill in central Newfoundland in early 2009. But the province had argued the company should still pay the $100-million cleanup cost.
• 2012/12/05: NatPo: Andrew Coyne: Federal government decides two wrongs make a right in subsidizing Labrador hydro project
• 2012/12/04: CBC: Terms of Muskrat Falls federal loan guarantee released
  In the North:
• 2012/12/05: PostMedia: Northwest Territories government banging the [shale] oil drum in Houston
• 2012/12/03: Yahoo:CP: Canada focuses on development at Arctic Council; experts fear wrong approach
  Canada will use its two years as leader of the circumpolar world to promote development and defend its policies, suggest federal politicians and documents. But Arctic experts and those involved with the Arctic Council worry that’s the wrong approach at a time when the diplomatic body is dealing with crucial international issues from climate change to a treaty on oil spill prevention. The Arctic Council consists of the eight countries that ring the North Pole and also has participation from aboriginal groups. It has evolved since its 1996 birth in Ottawa from a research forum and diplomatic talking shop to a body that negotiates binding international treaties, such as last year’s deal on Arctic search and rescue.
• 
  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2012/12/03: CBC: Canadian winter will ‘feel tougher’ this time around
  Normal chilly temperatures to return, with the East milder than the West
• 
  The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:

• 2012/12/07: DerSpiegel: ‘Limits to Growth’ Author Dennis Meadows — ‘Humanity Is Still on the Way to Destroying Itself’
  In 1972, environmental guru Dennis Meadows predicted in his seminal study “The Limits to Growth” that the world was heading toward an economic collapse. Forty years on, he tells SPIEGEL ONLINE that nothing he has seen since has made him change his mind.
• 2012/12/05: EconView: A Counter Example to the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’
• 2012/12/05: LoE: Deckchair fight on sinking Titanic
  IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
• 2012/12/02: CBC: Ireland poll backs legislation for limited abortion rights
  A new poll suggests people in Ireland favour changing the country’s abortion laws, after the recent death of a woman who was reportedly refused an abortion.
• 
  How do the media measure up?

• 2012/12/05: TP:JR: CNN Still Gives Equal Time To Anti-Science Disinformation
• 2012/12/05: SixthEstate: CBC’s Science Illiteracy Fuels Downplaying of Climate Change
• 2012/12/05: DeSmogBlog: CNN Lends Credence To Serial Climate Misinformer Marc Morano
• 2012/12/04: P3: TIME Spins Sandy
• 2012/12/04: TP:JR: MSNBC’s Chris Hayes: ‘The Time For Choosing Sides On Climate Change Is Now’
• 2012/12/03: WtD: Reality hits: Even the Herald Sun is reporting on a 5C Degree world by 2100
  Here is something for your library:
• 2012/12/03: Grist: If we build it right, they (emissions) will come (down): ‘Carbon Zero,’ chapter 4
• 2012/12/04: Grist: Share and share alike: ‘Carbon Zero,’ chapter 5
• 2012/12/05: Grist: Cities, nature, and food – mending the rift: ‘Carbon Zero,’ chapter 6
• 2012/12/06: Grist: There’s still time if you act now: ‘Carbon Zero,’ conclusion
  And for your film & video enjoyment:
• 2012/12/04: TreeHugger: New Film Series Aims to Highlight How Change Happens from the Bottom Up
• 2012/12/06: WtD: Video of the Week: The climate wars
• 2012/12/07: Tamino: Tell it like it is
• 2012/12/07: TP:JR: ‘Exxon Hates Your Children’ Ad Part Of Campaign To Strip The ‘Social License’ Of Oil Companies
• 2012/12/07: OilChange: Exxon Hates Your Children. Satire with a serious message
• 2012/12/09: SkS: Newest Yale Forum Video: A ‘Play-by-Play’ on Sandy with Kerry Emanuel by greenman3610
• 2012/12/03: TP:JR: Showtime To Air Climate Change Series From James Cameron, Jerry Weintraub and Arnold Schwarzenegger
  As for podcasts:
• 2012/12/08: CBC:Q&Q: (mp3) Nanotech Steam Generator
• 2012/12/07: EarthgaugeRadio: Interview with Jeff Orlowski, Director of ‘Chasing Ice’
• 2012/12/04: EarthGauge: Interview with John Bennett of the Sierra Club
  Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
• 2012/12/06: TreeHugger: Wave Power to Prove Its Mettle with 30 Megawatts to be Built Off Mexico’s Coast
• 2012/12/08: CSM: Leveraging energy: why China succeeds where the US fails
• 2012/12/08: P3: Japan Revives Orbiting Solar Idea
• 2012/12/01: BizInsider: It’s over: Why Everyone Is Losing Hope For Green Energy
  Hey! Let’s contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It’ll be a fracking gas!
• 2012/12/05: OilChange: UK Set to Frack, Baby, Frack
• 2012/12/04: EneNews: USGS: Large M5 quakes linked to fracking waste…
• 2012/12/04: IthacaJournal: Binghamton appeals fracking moratorium decision
  In a move with possible statewide implications, the city is mounting an appeal of the landmark legal decision that struck down its moratorium on oil and gas drilling.
• 2012/12/06: DeSmogBlog: UT-Austin Administration Distances Itself from “Frackademia” Study
• 2012/12/07: GreenGrok: Verdict on Texas fracking study is in
• 2012/12/07: ScienceInsider: In Wake of Scathing Review of Fracking Report, University of Texas Revises Conflict of Interest Policies
• 2012/12/07: BBerg: Fracking-Study Conflicts Prompt Head of Institute to Quit
• 2012/12/04: DeSmogBlog: ALEC, CSG, ExxonMobil Fracking Fluid “Disclosure” Model Bill Failing By Design
• 2012/12/04: TP:JR: Shale Shocked: Studies Tie Rise Of Significant Earthquakes In U.S. Midcontinent To Wastewater Injection
• 2012/12/02: LeitrimObserver: EU Public Consultation on fracking in 2013
• 2012/12/03: ICN: First Study of Its Kind Detects 44 Hazardous Air Pollutants at Gas Drilling Sites
  On the coal front:
• 2012/12/07: ABC(Au): Illawarra coal production reaches 20 year peak
  The Illawarra’s coalfields reached their highest level of coal production in almost twenty years in the June quarter.
• 2012/12/04: TP:JR: World’s Largest Mining Firm: ‘In A Carbon Constrained World, Coal Is Going To Decline. And Frankly It Should.’
  On the gas and oil front:
• 2012/12/07: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Dated Brent Spot….107.02
  WTI Cushing Spot…..85.93
• 2012/12/07: CSM: Heating oil: a last stand in the Northeast?
• 2012/12/05: TP:JR: A Letter To Chevron’s CEO: Your Business Is Creating A Climate ‘Incompatible With An Organized Global Community’
• 2012/12/05: EconBrowser: Will U.S. oil consumption continue to decline?
• 2012/12/06: LA Times: How to cut American oil use in half in 20 years
• 2012/12/07: OilDrum: Oil Watch – Rest of World Oil Production (IEA)
• 2012/12/04: OilDrum: Oil Watch – OECD Oil Production (IEA)
• 2012/12/03: NBF: Continential Resources estimates oil in place of 903 billion barrels for the Bakken Oil Formation
  And in pipeline news:
• 2012/12/06: CBC: Enbridge to go ahead with $6.2B pipeline expansion
• 2012/12/01: PortlandPH: Groups: Pipeline proposal a sign tar sands oil is headed to Maine
  Biofuel bickering abounds:
• 2012/11/27: Princeton: Synthetic fuels could eliminate entire U.S. need for crude oil, create ‘new economy’
• 2012/12/06: CSM: Fighting winter with fire? Wood-burning on the rise.
• 2012/12/04: PI: [link to 2.3 meg pdf] ENGO and Conservation Group Outreach on Biomass — Position and rationale regarding the use of biomass for electricity/heat production
• 2012/12/04: CBC: CO2 emissions could feed algae biofuel bonanza
  U.S. Steel Canada announces pilot project that will test Pond Biofuels technology
• 2012/12/04: AutoBG: AAA calls on US government to suspend E15 gasoline sales
  The answer my friend…:
• 2012/12/04: PSinclair: New Wind Turbine Blades from Hi Tec Fabric
• 2012/12/03: TreeHugger: New Radar System Can Tell Planes and Wind Turbines Apart
  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
• 2012/12/05: BBerg: India Proposes 9 Gigawatts Solar Capacity to 2017
• 2012/12/06: Eureka: Silver nanocubes make super light absorbers
• 2012/12/07: NBF: Tiny structure gives big boost to solar power
• 2012/12/06: al Jazeera: Saudi Arabia: Ray of light in climate fight?
  Oil rich Gulf state seeks $109bn investment for solar energy, a move some say could revolutionise green power.
• 2012/12/03: ERW: Concentrating solar combined heat and power system minimizes water use
• 2012/12/06: Eureka: Tiny structure gives big boost to solar power
• 2012/11/: LBL: [link to 2.7 meg pdf] Tracking the Sun V An Historical Summary of the Installed Price of Photovoltaics in the United States from 1998 to 2011
• 2012/12/03: UCSUSA:B: Good News for Solar Prices
• 2012/12/04: BBC: Ghana solar energy plant set to be Africa’s largest
  The nuclear energy controversy continues:
• 2012/12/05: NatureN: Nuclear energy: Radical reactors
  For decades, one design has dominated nuclear reactors while potentially better options were left by the wayside. Now, the alternatives might finally have their day.
• 2012/12/04: Reuters: Enel pulls out from French EPR nuclear project
  Follows EDF overruns announcement for Flamanville reactor – Enel to get 613 mln euros plus interest for prepaid expenses – Last 24 hours have ‘killed’ French nuclear – analyst
• 2012/12/05: P3: The Dark Side of Thorium
• 2012/12/06: IndiaTimes: Nod to set up six nuclear power plants at Jaitapur
• 2012/12/04: EurActiv: Clinton presses Czechs to pick US nuclear reactors
• 2012/12/04: HuffPo: Nuclear Power Whistleblowers Charge Federal Regulators With Favoring Secrecy Over Safety
• 2012/12/04: BBC: Nuclear power: EDF extends life of two UK plants
• 2012/12/03: APR: Argentina’s Atucha Unit 2 to be on line mid-2013
  Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
• 2012/12/08: CCurrents: Nuclear Safari In Deutschland:A Waste Story
• 2012/12/: TNA: Yucca Mountain: A Post-Mortem
  Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:
• 2012/12/07: NBF: LENR Transmutation Replication and Celani Replication
  More people are talking about the electrical grid:
• 2012/12/07: EurActiv: Grids alliance aims to counter renewables ‘NIMBY syndrome’
  EU energy ministers have teamed up with electricity grid operators and environmental groups to counter the NIMBY syndrome on new renewable energy infrastructure builds.
• 2012/12/06: TreeHugger: Island Businesses Voluntarily Power Down When Energy Is Scarce
• 2012/12/04: ICN: A Smart Grid Primer: Complex and Costly, but Vital to a Warming World
  Transforming the archaic power network to a smart grid has taken on added urgency post-Sandy. What upgrades are needed, why and what’s the holdup?
• 
  Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:

• 2012/12/05: EurActiv: EU carmakers go green faster than Asian competitors: Report
  European car manufacturers are on track when it comes to meeting the carbon dioxide emissions targets set by the EU for 2015 and 2020. They are also well ahead of their Asian competitors, according to a new report.
• 2012/12/05: CSM: My Nissan Leaf life: Perks of driving gasoline-free
• 2012/12/06: Forbes: Electric Car Sales Hit Another Record
  This week in the Gee Whiz File:
• 2012/12/03: CSM: New plastic lighting saves energy. Goodbye, fluorescent lights?
• 2012/12/03: Eureka: Goodbye, fluorescent light bulbs! See your office in a new [field-induced polymer electroluminescent (FIPEL)] light
• 2012/12/03: BBC: Plastic bulb development promises better quality light
  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
• 2012/12/06: ABC(Au): Simplot lowers its carbon footprint
  Vegetable processor Simplot today opened it’s clean technology co-generation plant in Ulverstone in Tasmania’s north west.
• 
  Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:

• 2012/12/07: TP:JR: December 7 News…
• 2012/12/06: TP:JR: December 6 News…
• 2012/12/05: TP:JR: December 5 News…
• 2012/12/04: TP:JR: December 4 News…
• 2012/12/03: TP:JR: December 3 News…
  Other (weekly) lists:
• 2012/12/07: Resilience: ODAC Newsletter
• 2012/12/04: BPA: Is the Future of Sustainable Farming SCI “System of Crop Intensification”? Plus, More Agriculture News This Week
• 2012/12/06: SkS: 2012 SkS Bi-Weekly News Roundup #7 by John Hartz
  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
• 2012/12/05: BCLSB: Chris Of Arabia
• 2012/12/06: DeSmogBlog: Monckton Banned From UN Climate Process For Offensive Stunt
• 2012/12/06: CChallenge: Jim Cooks says: Thanks for Playing “It’s Global Cooling,” Dan!
• 2012/12/05: Grist: Genius ad finally says it out loud: Exxon hates your children
• 2012/12/06: DeSmogBlog: Fashion for the Discerning Climate Science Denier
• 2012/12/06: DeSmogBlog: International Forum on Globalization: Kochtopus “Carbon Billionaires” Create “Climate Deadlock”
• 2012/12/06: DeSmogBlog: FreedomWorks’ Pro-Coal Lobbyist Tom Borelli is Former Professional Pro-Tobacco Scientist
• 2012/12/06: DeSmogBlog: Freedom of Information Laws Used By Climate Sceptics To Rifle Through Scientists’ Daily Emails
• 2012/12/05: DemNow: From Fossil Fuels to Global Warming Denial, Koch Brothers May Be Biggest Force Behind U.S. Inaction
• 2012/12/07: Guardian(UK): UKIP’s Lord Monckton thrown out of Doha climate talks
• 2012/12/07: Grist: Famed idiot Lord Monckton banned for life from U.N. climate talks
• 2012/12/04: CChallenge: AGW Mistake Disclosed by Dan Pangburn – an unauthorized guest post
• 2012/12/04: WtD: High Confidence: survey of 13,000 science papers finds only 24 that reject climate change
• 2012/12/03: ITracker: Graph of the day
• 2012/12/03: Slate:BA: Doubling Down on Climate Change Denial
• 2012/12/02: Stoat: American Drinker Climate Forecaster of The Year 2010
  As for climate miscellanea:
• 2012/12/05: DD: A human-caused climate change signal emerges from the noise
• 2012/12/05: ABC(Au): Prepare economy for climate change ‘war’: expert
• 2012/12/05: ClimateShifts: What are the 10 Top Green Stories?
• 2012/12/04: CSM: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Act 3: global warming crusader
• 2012/12/04: DemNow: Carbon Tsunami: World Bank Study Warns of Lethal Global Temperature Rise Even If Emissions Pledges Are Met
• 2012/12/03: DemNow: U.N. Climate Summit in Qatar Brings Rare Attention to Plight of Country’s Neglected Migrant Workers
• 2012/12/06: QuarkSoup: Divestiture from Fossil Fuel Companies
• 2012/12/05: AutoBG: Should there be a fossil fuel moratorium? Some scientists say yes
• 2012/12/07: CCR: Scientists call for war on climate change, but who on earth is listening?
• 2012/12/07: Guardian(UK): Energy Bits — young people doing their bit to improve the environment
• 2012/12/07: TP:JR: What Are the Near-Term Climate Pearl Harbors? What Will Take Us from Procrastination To Action?
• 2012/12/08: DD: FAO chief warns Pakistan of future floods – ‘The emergency triggered by climate change is unfolding fast’
• 2012/12/07: CDreams: A Call to Reject False Capitalist Solutions to Climate Crisis by La Via Campesina
• 2012/12/08: TheCanadian: The Surrender of an Ecowarrior
• 2012/12/03: NatJo: It’s Already Too Late to Stop Climate Change
  Even as climate policy is debated in Doha, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the first devastating effects of global warming cannot be prevented.
• 
  And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:

• WCPFC: Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission
• 2012/12/: NOAA: Arctic Report Card
• The Conversation
• UNC: Synthetic Biology
• Wiki: Synthetic genomics
• Wiki: Synthetic biology
• Environmental Investigation Agency
• Total fire bans and fire danger ratings for Victoria – Country Fire Authority (CFA)
• 2012/12/: AGU: Video On-Demand Lectures and Sessions
• AOSIS: Alliance of Small Island States [Note CoA]
• Climate Desk
• PV Mag
• Polaris Institute
• COSEWIC: Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada
• ForestsCC: CIFOR: Forests, Climate Change and REDD+
• GCP: Global Carbon Project

Low Key Plug

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.

-het

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC.

“As we sit here in these negotiations, even as we vacillate and procrastinate here, the death toll is rising. There is massive and widespread devastation. Hundreds of thousands of people have been rendered without homes. And the ordeal is far from over, as typhoon Bopha has regained some strength as it approaches another populated area in the western part of the Philippines.

“Madam chair, we have never had a typhoon like Bopha, which has wreaked havoc in a part of the country that has never seen a storm like this in half a century. And heartbreaking tragedies like this are not unique to the Philippines, because the whole world, especially developing countries struggling to address poverty and achieve social and human development, confront these same realities.

“Madam chair, I speak on behalf of 100 million Filipinos, a quarter of a million of whom are eking out a living working here in Qatar. And I am making an urgent appeal, not as a negotiator, not as a leader of my delegation, but as a Filipino. I appeal to the whole world, I appeal to leaders from all over the world, to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face. I appeal to ministers. The outcome of our work is not about what our political masters want. It is about what is demanded of us by 7 billion people.

“I appeal to all, please, no more delays, no more excuses. Please, let Doha be remembered as the place where we found the political will to turn things around. Please, let 2012 be remembered as the year the world found the courage to find the will to take responsibility for the future we want. I ask of all of us here, if not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?” -NaderevSano , head of the Philippines delegation at Doha

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