Climate change media to 23 December 2008
A weekly service of CarbonEquity and the Climate Action Centre Melbourne
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POLITICS & POLICY----------
The economy won't matter if the Earth dies
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/the-economy-wont-matter-if-the-earth-dies-20081217-70qq.html
Kenneth Davidson, The Age, December 18, 2008
KEVIN Rudd and Penny Wong are prepared to bet the global environment against a plan to wedge the Coalition in the Senate to win the next election.
Obama left with little time to curb global warming
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081214/ap_on_sc/global_warming_obama
Seth Borenstein, AP, 14 December 2008
When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid.
ALSO
Obama cranks up the green revolution
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/obama-cranks-up-the-green-revolution-1206394.html
* CPRS
Households pay as big polluters cash in on climate change
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/households-pay-as-big-polluters-cash-in-on-climate-change-20081216-6zrp.html?
Australia counts itself out: Ross Garnaut
http://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-counts-itself-out-20081219-72ei.htm
Warm-up act in climate war
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24824789-11949,00.html
Rudd's defence of target contains some telling omissions
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/rudds-defence-of-target-contains-some-telling-o
missions-20081216-6zwa.html
Scheme too kind by half to emitters: think-tank
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/scheme-too-kind-by-half-to-emitters-thinktank/1388379.aspx
This PM can talk the talk but not walk
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/this-pm-can-talk-the-talk-but-not-walk/1388390.aspx
MPs' offices sandbagged in protests
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24806939-12377,00.html
Wave of protests greets greenhouse target
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1002528/Wave-of-protests-greets-greenhouse-target
Scientists predict a hot and bleak future
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/scientists-predict-a-hot-and-bleak-future/2008/12/15/1229189534105.html
ENERGY & INNOVATION----------------
Energy secretary nominee sees coal as 'nightmare'
http://wvgazette.com/News/200812160723
Ken Ward Jnr, Charlestown Gazette, 17 December 2008
President-elect Barack Obama's pick for U.S. energy secretary isn't sold on the idea that technology to capture greenhouse emissions and pump them underground will save the coal industry.
Coal is the great danger as 'peak oil' approaches, scientist warns
http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/agu-2008/coal-is-the-great-danger-as-peak-oil-approaches
Harvey Leifert, Daily Climate, 18 December 2008
When will oil production peak and begin to decline? Scientists, engineers and economists have debated the point for years, on the assumption that carbon dioxide emissions will decline when less oil is burned.
Biochar and its Role in Mitigating Climate Change
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1217-zafar_biochar.html
Salman Zafar, Mongabay, December 17, 2008
The growing concerns about climate change have brought biochar, a charcoal produced from biomass combustion, into limelight.
At Last, A Date
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/12/15/at-last-a-date/
George Monbiot, Guardian, December 15, 2008
For the first time, the International Energy Agency has produced a date for peak oil. And it’s not reassuring.
ALSO
VIDEO: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2008/dec/15/fatih-birol-george-monbiot
Sun king Garrett cuts solar subsidy
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/sun-king-garrett-cuts-solar-subsidy/2008/12/17/1229189709644.html
Ben Cubby and Mark Davis, SMH, December 18, 2008
SYDNEY residents who want to install rooftop solar panels will have their subsidy cut almost in half from next July, under a landmark shake-up of the nation's solar industry.
Switch to solar undermined by Rudd climate plan
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/switch-to-solar-undermined-by-rudd-climate-plan-20081218-71n4.html
Tim Colebatch, the Age, December 19, 2008
A flaw in the design of the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme means households buying solar power systems in future might not be helping to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.
SCIENCE & IMPACTS----------------
Met Office warn of 'catastrophic' rise in temperature
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5371682.ece
Dr Vicky Pope, Times Online, December 19, 2008
A new study by the Met Office warns that the world could warm by more than 5C in the next 90 years, if emissions keep on rising. This would be catastrophic for the environment and for humanity.
ALSO
2008 amongst the ten warmest years
http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/pr_835_en.html
Cooling La Nina fails to ease rising heat
http://www.theage.com.au/national/cooling-la-nina-fails-to-ease-rising-heat-20081218-70ws.html
This too shall gas
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/12/19/105214/63
Joseph Romm, Gristmill, 19 December 2008
Arctic Research Center: Underwater permafrost is thawing and releasing methane
AND
Methane time bomb ticking louder
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/12/18/10192/710
AND
NASA: Another brutally hot year for the Siberian tundra
http://climateprogress.org/2008/12/17/nasa-another-brutally-hot-year-for-the-siberian-tundra
Methane Bubbling Up From Undersea Permafrost?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081219-methane-siberia.html
Mason Inman, National Geographic News, December 19, 2008
The East Siberian Sea is bubbling with methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, being released from underwater reserves, according to a recent expedition by a Russian team.
Global Warming Impacts On U.S. Coming Sooner Than Expected
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081216201404.htm
ScienceDaily, Dec. 16, 2008
A report released at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on December 16 provides new insights on the potential for abrupt climate change and the effects it could have on the United States
REPORT
http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap3-4/final-report/default.htm
Arctic Ice Volume Lowest Ever as Globe Warms: UN
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/50927
Robert Evans, Reuters, 17 December 2008
Ice volume around the Arctic region hit the lowest level ever recorded this year as climate extremes brought death and devastation to many parts of the world
AUDIO
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2008/2450762.htm
Arctic melt passes the point of no return
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/arctic-melt-passes-the-point-of--no-return-1128197.html
Steve Connor, Independent, 16 December 2008
Scientists have found the first unequivocal evidence that the Arctic region is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world at least a decade before it was predicted to happen.
ALSO
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7786910.stm
Sea levels: 'A rise of up to 1.5 metres may even be too conservative'
VIDEO: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio/2008/dec/17/sea-levels-james-randerson
STORY: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/16/climatechange-scienceofclimatechange
Sea level rise due to global warming will "substantially exceed" official UN projections and could top 150cm by the end of the century, according to a report from the US Geological Survey on the risks of abrupt climate change.d
Swiss glaciers 'in full retreat'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7770472.stm
Jonthan AMos, BBC News, 19 December 2008
Swiss glaciers are melting away at an accelerating rate and many will vanish this century if climate projections are correct, two new studies suggest
Greenland's Glaciers Losing Ice Faster This Year than Last
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/547420/
newswise, 15 December 2008
Researchers watching the loss of ice flowing out from the giant island of Greenland say that the amount of ice lost this summer is nearly three times what was lost one year ago.
AND
Loss cause
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/12/18/14428/566
Joseph Romm, Gristmill, 19 December 2008
Two trillion tons of land ice lost since 2003, rate of Greenland summer ice-loss triples 2007 record
[Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L17505 (2008)]
Update on sea surface temperatures and the Great Barrier Reef
http://www.climateshifts.org/?p=823
Rachael Middlebrook, 16 December 2008
The sea surface temperature (SST) model forecast (NOAA) for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is predicting widespread bleaching, with severe scenarios predicted to affect the northern GBR from mid January 2009.
ALSO
Australia aims for destruction of Great Barrier Reef
http://www.climateshifts.org/?p=835
World’s oceans turning acidic faster than expected
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/12/18/world%E2%80%99s-oceans-turning-acidic-faster-than-expected/
Peter N. Spotts, CS Monitor, December 18, 2008
Acidification caused by carbon emissions could bring some oceans to a tipping point
the carbon atlas
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/interactive/2008/dec/09/climatechange-carbonemissions
Inventor: Evaporation units could cool Earth
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6174640.html
Greg Gordon, McClatchy Tribune, 20 December 2008
Some scientists find idea intriguing, others scoff at plan.
ALSO
http://www.sacbee.com/702/story/1490304.html
GREAT VIDEO--------------
John Holdren: The science and physical implications of climate change
http://usclimateaction.org/userfiles/flash/Holdren.html
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