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Another Week of Anthropocene Antics, February 16, 2014 [A Few Things Ill Considered]

Monday, February 17, 2014 16:14
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(Before It's News)

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week’s Global Warming news roundup

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Sipping from the Internet Firehose…

February 16, 2014

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More black humour in a climatic vein:

Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:

A group of nations conferred over illegal wildlife trade and came up with the London Declaration:

The AAAS had their annual meeting this week in Chicago:

The England et al. paper on stronger Pacific Trade Winds burying warm surface waters sparked some interest:

How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

And on the Bottom Line:

Delving into the laws of thermodynamics this week:

Here is something for your Crap Detector:

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

A note on theFukushima disaster:

It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.]
And the IAEA is now saying 40 years too.
[Now some people are talking about a century or more. Sealing it in concrete for 500 years.]
We’ll see.
At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
Meanwhile…
It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
Do they have an agenda?
Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
Do they want to write a good news story?
Do they want to write a bad news story?
Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

No good news out of Fukushima yet:

Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:

The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

As for the charismatic megafauna:

That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

While in Antarctica:

The food crisis is ongoing:

The state of the world’s fisheries is a concern. See also:

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?

Except for Tropical Cyclone Fobane in the South Indian Ocean, it has been a quiet week:

The post Haiyan situation in the Philippines is not good:

And the State of the Biosphere?

And on the extinction watch:

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

More GW impacts are being seen:

And then there are the world’s forests:

Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

As for heatwaves and wild fires:

Corals are a bellwether of the ocean’s health:

Glaciers are melting:

Sea levels are rising:

As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

On the mitigation front, consider transportation & GHG production:

While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:

As for carbon sequestration:

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

What’s new in conservation?

While on the adaptation front:

Meanwhile in the journals:

And other significant documents:

As for miscellaneous science:

In the science organizations:

More DIY science:

  • 2014/02/13: CBC: Great Backyard Bird Count appeals for public’s help
    Novice and expert bird-watchers unite for four days in a massive, worldwide bird counting project The populations of a number of bird species have been in decline, and scientists are appealing to the public for volunteers to help them put together a better picture of what’s happening in the ecosystem through the Great Backyard Bird Count.

What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

Regarding Emanuel:

And on the carbon trading front:

  • 2014/02/14: BBerg: EU Factories Facing First Carbon Shortfall Since 2008: Energy
    European rules to curb the record glut of carbon permits are raising the prospects of a shortage for manufacturers from Dow Chemical Co. to HeidelbergCement AG. Companies in Europe, which need allowances to match their emissions output, will be short of as many as 100 million permits a year through 2016, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The gap, worth 647 million euros ($884 million) at yesterday’s prices, compares with a surplus of 2.1 billion euros in 2012, EU data show. Carbon futures may more than double by next year to 15 euros a metric ton amid the curb, said UBS AG.

On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:

South [& East] China Sea tension persists:

In the “global competition for natural resources”:

So now the Germans are suing the Taiwanese in America and just to add to the general confusion, we have a solar spat between the USA and India:

These ‘free trade’ treaties are a stealth corporate takeover with anti-democratic dispute resolution mechanisms:

Who’s teed off at the NSA this week?

Whot’s all this then?

As for miscellaneous international political happenings:

Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, resources, religion, ideology … etc.:

The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:

What are the activists up to?

The move to divest from fossil fuel investments is growing slowly:

Polls! We have polls!

Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:

Among the world’s religions:

Regarding science education:

While in the UK:

And in Europe:

Meanwhile in Australia:

Now we get to watch the suppository of wisdom destroy what little Australia has done to fight climate change:

After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are far from finished:

And in New Zealand:

While in the Indian subcontinent:

  • 2014/02/13: BBC: Telangana: Indian MP uses pepper spray in parliament
    There has been chaos in the lower house of India’s parliament after an MP used pepper spray to disrupt proceedings. The MP from the governing Congress party, L Rajagopal, was protesting against a plan to create the new state of Telangana in southern India.
    [...]
    Mr Rajagopal smashed a glass and used pepper spray on his colleagues when Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde tried to table the bill to create Telangana, which will be carved out of Andhra Pradesh state. Some unconfirmed reports said another MP pulled out a knife. Several other MPs were reportedly involved in clashes with their opponents. The Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that four ambulances were called in and an unspecified number of MPs were taken to hospital.

And in China:

And Japan:

In South America:

In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:

Resonances of the Lac Mégantic tragedy linger:

The Harper gang is pushing some fundamentally destructive science policies:

Silencing the environmental opponents is well under way:

The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

The Alberta Clipper is being delayed by the Yanks:

  • 2014/02/14: CBC: Enbridge’s Alberta-Wisconsin pipeline expansion delayed by U.S. regulators
    Greater scrutiny of pipelines holding up approval process, energy giant says as it reports 4th quarter loss Enbridge Inc. says the U.S. State Department is taking longer than expected to review an expansion to an Alberta-to-Wisconsin pipeline. But executives with the Calgary-based energy shipper said Friday they’re confident of getting a green light in time to expand the Alberta Clipper line to 800,000 barrels per day by the middle of next year. Enbridge obtained a U.S. federal permit in 2009 before starting up the first 450,000-barrel-per-day phase of the line, but the U.S. State Department says it needs to amend its environmental review before allowing the expansions to go ahead.

The Harper gang lost a big court case. They’ll likely file an appeal at the last moment:

  • 2014/02/14: HuffPo: Species At Risk Act: Court Finds ‘Enormous Systemic Problem’ In Enforcement
    A Federal Court judge has ruled that the environment minister and the fisheries minister both broke the law by failing to enforce the Species at Risk Act. In a case covering four species that Justice Anne Mactavish calls “the tip of the iceberg,” the court found there’s a major systemic problem in the two ministries charged with protecting endangered and threatened wildlife. The 47-page ruling released Friday states that “public officials are not above the law. If an official acts contrary to a statute, the courts are entitled to so declare.” At issue was a challenge brought by five environmental organizations, who asked the court to enforce provisions under the Species at Risk Act.

Meanwhile in BC:

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

  • 2014/02/14: BLongstaff: Our dangerous dependence on the tar sands
  • 2014/02/13: OilChange: Five Per Cent of Canadian Jobs Linked to Tar Sands in 2025
  • 2014/02/11: PostMedia: Oilsands the giant of Canada’s economy, study finds
    Edmonton – The oilsands, Canada’s biggest industry, make an economic contribution to the country that in 2012 was far greater than Saskatchewan’s, a new study has determined. And with oilsands production expected to double by 2025, the benefits to Alberta and every province, as well as the U.S., are expected to double. That’s according to Oilsands Economic Benefits: Today and in the Future, a report prepared by U.S.-based IHS in co-operation with three Canadian university business departments and various petroleum associations and companies. The study found that oilsands production supported more than 478,000 direct, indirect and induced Canadian jobs in 2012 — three per cent of all jobs in the country — and contributed $91 billion of Canada’s gross domestic product. Saskatchewan’s contribution to GDP in 2012 was $78 billion. By 2025, 753,000 jobs — equivalent to five per cent of total Canadian employment in 2012 — will be linked to the oilsands.

Also in Alberta:

In Ontario:

While in la Belle Province:

  • 2014/02/15: CBC: Anticosti hunt for oil sparks concern over taxpayer risk
    Profitability of oil exploration on Anticosti Island in St. Lawrence Gulf questionable. A plan launched by the Quebec government to help fund oil exploration on a remote Gulf of St. Lawrence island is raising concerns the province is taking too big a risk with taxpayer cash.
  • 2014/02/13: CBC: Quebec takes control of oil exploration off Anticosti Island
    Oil in the Gulf of St. Lawrence would help ween Quebec off foreign oil, Premier Marois says Premier Pauline Marois announced Thursday that the Quebec government is taking control of oil exploration off the coast of Anticosti Island in the St. Lawrence Gulf. Marois and Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet announced the Quebec government will partner with three companies: Petrolia, Corridor Resources and Maurel & Prom. It also struck a partnership in principle with Junex. “Today, Quebec is taking back its rights on natural resources,” Marois said.

In the Maritimes:

In the North:

  • 2014/02/11: CBC: Wildlife officials mull quotas for world’s last unregulated polar bear hunt
    Northern wildlife officials will meet in Quebec’s arctic region Wednesday to discuss quotas on the world’s last unregulated polar bear hunt. Hunters who kill bears from the south Hudson Bay population, which includes Quebec, Ontario and Nunavut, have a voluntary limit of 60 bears a year. But scientists say climate change is starting to affect the population’s health and that the region’s first official quotas should be lower.

And on the American political front:

The Keystone XL wheel grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:

The GOP War on Women continues. See also:

The impacts of the sequestration are starting to come home:

Leaks and spills:

Jeez! It’s getting hard to keep all the spills and leaks straight. So, let’s see… we have:

  1. In North Caroline, Duke Energy spilled coal ash slurry into the Dan River
  2. In West Virginia, Patriot Coal spilled coal ash slurry into Fields Creek which runs into the Kanawha River
  3. In West Virginia, Freedom Industries spilled coal cleaning chemicals into the Elk river
  4. In Michigan, Enbridge spilled dilbit into the Kalamazoo River
  5. In Arkansas, Exxon, spilled dilbit into the suburb of Mayflower
  6. In the Gulf of Mexico, BP and company had the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

In North Carolina, Duke Energy spilled coal ash slurry into the Dan River:

In West Virginia, Patriot Coal dumped 100,000 gallons of coal slurry into a river:

In West Virginia, Freedom Industries spilled coal cleaning chemicals into the Elk river:

Earlier in Michigan, Enbridge spilled dilbit into the Kalamazoo River:

Earlier in Arkansas, Exxon, spilled dilbit into the suburb of Mayflower:

Almost one year after ExxonMobil’s pipeline burst and caused a major oil spill near Mayflower, Arkansas, officials say the area is safe to live in. But locals are still suffering from dizziness, headaches, and nausea — prompting many to move away.


  • The BP disaster continues to twist US politics. See also:

    The Keeling CO2 monitoring project still needs funding:

    Looking ahead to the 2016 elections:

    The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

    As for what is going on in Congress:

    What are the lobbyists pushing?

    The movement toward ecologically based economics is glacial:

    What do we tell the children?

    IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:

    Apocalypso anyone?

    How do the corporate media measure up?

    Here is something for your library:

    And for your film & video enjoyment:

    As for podcasts:

    Meanwhile among the ‘Sue the Bastards!’ contingent:

    The Mann defamation suit saga rolls on:

    It looks like this BP trial over the Gulf oil spill is going to take a long while:

    Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:

    What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?

    Hey! Let’s contaminate the aquifers for thousands of years! It’ll be a fracking gas!

    On the coal front:

    • 2014/02/13: TMoS: The Toll of Coal
      Coal is dirt cheap, or so we’re told. It sells for dirt cheap prices because it is so abundant, or so we’re told. Yet, like every other fossil fuel, the price of coal is rigged, literally floating on a cushion of subsidies, deferrals and grants and, above all, something known as “externalities” – very real impact costs that are never factored into the market price. These are costs that are borne by the rest of us, freebies of death, dislocation and inevitable suffering that fossil fuelers are able to keep off their balance sheets. And, with that sleight-of-hand they’re quick to condemn clean, alternative energy as just too damned expensive to be worth it.
    • 2014/02/10: TP:JR: Coal Dust Pollution, Dirty White Pants, And Coverups: The Consequences Of Exporting Coal

    On the gas and oil front:

    In the gas and oil corps:

    And in pipeline news:

    Ships and boats and trains — How to tranport the stuff?

    Yes we have peak everything:

    Biofuel bickering abounds:

    The answer my friend…

    Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

    The nuclear energy controversy continues:

    Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

    Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:

    Like a mirage, the dream of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:

    More people are talking about the electrical grid:

    How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?

    Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:

    As for Energy Storage:

    The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

    Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

    What do we have in (weekly) lists?

    Anything in pithy quotes this week?

    The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

    Note: You may notice my denialist coverage flagging. I am finding it increasingly difficult to give any attention to these people.

    As for climate miscellanea:

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

    Low Key Plug

    My first novel _Water_ was published in May 2007. An Introduction is available.
    My most recent novel _The Bottleneck Years_ is being serialized online atmy siteand on AFTIC at Table of Contents
    If you want further information, see A Gentle Introduction. If you want a copy, see The Deal.
    An overview of my writing is available here.

    A Simple Plea

    Webmasters, web coders and content providers have mercy on your low bandwidth brethren. Because I am on dial-up, I am a text surfer — no images, no javascript and no flash. When you post a graphic, will you please use the alt text field … and when you embed a youtube/vimeo/flash video, please add some minimal description. Thank you.

    -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.

    “The nay-sayers insist loudly that they’re “climate sceptics”, but this is a calculated misnomer – scientific scepticism is the method of investigating whether a particular hypothesis is supported by the evidence. Climate sceptics, by contrast, persist in ignoring empirical evidence that renders their position untenable. This isn’t scepticism, it’s unadulterated denialism, the very antithesis of critical thought.” -David Robert Grimes

    Last modified February 16, 2014



    • Source: http://scienceblogs.com/illconsidered/2014/02/gw-news-february-16-2014/

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