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| Chart of the week: Collapse of US Network News Coverage of Climate Change |
Taking Action On Climate And Clean Energy In 2012: A Menu Of Effective And Feasible Solutions
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/04/26/459844/taking-action-on-climate-and-clean-energy-in-2012-a-menu-of-effective-and-feasible-solutions
Jason Walsh and Kate Gordon, Climate progress, Apr 26, 2012
Last year threw into stark relief America’s interlinked economic, energy security, and climate crises.
Brightsiding climate is a bad strategy
http://www.climatecodered.org/p/brightsiding.html
David Spratt, ClimateCodeRed, 27 April 2012
Is all “good news” and no “bad news” a good climate action and communication strategy? This analysis finds that the answer is a resounding "no".
Extremes in weather more likely: scientists
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/extremes-in-weather-more-likely--scientists-20120427-1xpq8.html
Deborah Smith, The Age, April 27, 2012
Wet areas have become wetter and dry areas drier during the past 50 years due to global warming, a study of the saltiness of the world's oceans by a team including CSIRO researchers has shown.
AND
Climate Change Has Intensified the Global Water Cycle
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-has-intensified-the-global-water-cycle/
Governments failing to avert catastrophic climate change, IEA warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/25/governments-catastrophic-climate-change-iea
Fiona Harvey and Damian Carrington, The Guardian, Wednesday 25 April 2012
Governments are falling badly behind on low-carbon energy, putting carbon reduction targets out of reach and pushing the world to the brink of catastrophic climate change, the world's leading independent energy authority will warn on Wednesday.
REPORT: Tracking Clean Energy Progress
http://www.cleanenergyministerial.org/pdfs/Tracking_Clean_Energy_Progress.pdf
James Lovelock’s climate change U-turn
http://theconversation.edu.au/james-lovelocks-climate-change-u-turn-6668
Andrew Glikson, The Conversation, 26 April 2012
Recent statements by James Lovelock, the distinguished physicist, are not easy to reconcile with his statements, writings and books over the years, including The Vanishing Face of Gaia; The Revenge of Gaia and others.
Warm Ocean Currents Cause Majority of Ice Loss from Antarctica
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120425140353.htm
ScienceDaily, April 25, 2012
An international team of scientists led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has established that warm ocean currents are the dominant cause of recent ice loss from Antarctica.
A brown-coal export hub? Tell them they’re dreaming!
http://theconversation.edu.au/a-brown-coal-export-hub-tell-them-theyre-dreaming-6567
Stephen King, The Conversation, 24 April 2012
If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. And if wishes were new technology, then Victoria’s Latrobe Valley would be a mining export hub to rival the Pilbara.
ENERGY AND INNOVATION
Renewables 'help jobs and growth'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17812299
Richard Black, BBC News, 23 April 2012
The renewable energy industry supports 110,000 jobs in the UK and could support 400,000 by 2020, a report says.
The extraordinary game of bluff in Australian renewables
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/the-extraordinary-game-of-bluff-in-australian-renewables-95598
Giles Parkinson, ReNewEconomy, 24 April 2012
There are some funny games going on in the Australian renewable energy industry at the moment. According to the spirit, if not the letter of the law, Australia should be busily constructing wind farms, and contemplating the business case for other technologies, to meet the country’s bipartisan renewable energy target of 20 per cent by 2020.
Why utilities should fear the next boom in solar PV
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/why-utilities-should-fear-the-next-boom-in-solar-pv-50006
Giles Parkinson, ReNewEconomy, 23 April 2012
The global solar PV market is giving all the impressions of an industry in crisis – reduced incentives, a glut of panels, bankruptcies of manufacturers and installers, closures of plants and plunging share prices. But are these the death throes of solar, a classic boom/bust cycle, or just natural growing pains? Definitely the latter, says global consultancy group McKinsey & Co.
Renewables could trump gas under greenhouse targets
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3487216.htm
Michael Janda, ABC PM, April 23, 2012
A report by one of the world's leading credit ratings agencies predicts that it's unlikely that there'll be a significant increase in gas-fired electricity generation in Australia.
Coalition cling to a fossil fuel future
http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/coalition-cling-fossil-fuel-future
Andrew Bray, Climate Spectator, 24 April 2012
In Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, Lord Darlington pins the cynic as “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Public back wind farm subsidies, survey suggests
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17783604
Richard Black, BBC News, 23 April 2012
More Britons than not regard subsidies for wind power development as a good deal, an opinion poll suggests.
COMMUNICATIONS AND STRATEGY
Wacky weather shifting voters away from GOP's climate stance
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2012/04/gop-weather-disconnect
Glenn Scherer, Blue Ridge Press, April 24, 2012
As extreme weather hurts more local communities and economies, voters may find it tough to back candidates who ignore, and even deny, their plight.
Climate change debate has moved on
http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/04/26/3489733.htm
Sara Phillips, ABC Environment, 26 Apr 2012
According to the Lowy Institute's annual poll, Australians are losing their conviction on climate change. The last poll, published in June 2011 showed that just 41 per cent of those polled agreed with the statement, "Global warming is a serious and pressing problem. We should begin taking steps now even if this involves significant costs" down from a whopping 68 per cent in 2006.
AND
Climate change real: new research
http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/local/news/general/climate-change-real-new-research/2531748.aspx
Tom McIlroy, the Courier, 24 April 2012
Australians remain sceptical about the role of the federal government’s carbon tax in addressing climate change, with only one in four believing the tax will achieve its objective.
New research shows that more than 90 per cent of Australians believe climate change is a real phenomenon and are looking for government solutions, but 53 per cent said the tax would have a negative impact on the Australian economy.
POLITICS AND POLICY
Offsetting under pressure
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v2/n5/full/nclimate1510.html?WT.ec_id=NCLIMATE-201205
Nature Climate Change, 15 April 2012
Kevin Anderson, Deputy Director of the UK Tyndall Centre and an expert on greenhouse-gas emissions trajectories explains to Nature Climate Change why he believes that carbon offsetting can be worse than useless.
Economy 'must adapt' in face of climate change
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/economy-must-adapt-in-face-of-climate-change-20120426-1xo05.html
David Wroe, SMH, April 27, 2012
Adapting to inevitable global warming will need changes across the Australian economy, including ditching property taxes that discourage people from moving out of areas prone to extreme weather events, the government's independent research arm says.
A Labor disaster possible: analysis
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/a-labor-disaster-possible-analysis-20120422-1xf6i.html
Peter Harcher, The Age, April 23, 2012
Labor would suffer its worst result in the Senate since 1944 if an election were held now, giving Tony Abbott control of the upper house as well as the lower, an analysis shows.
I Can Engage In A Flawed Debate About Climate Change
http://www.readfearn.com/2012/04/i-can-change-your-mind-about/
Graham Readfearn, 24 April 2012
Apparently, science writer and academic Ben Goldacre would rather slam his “cock in a door” than engage in a phony debate with climate change deniers.
AND
ABC’s latest climate change doco another PR victory for doubters
http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/04/26/hamilton-abcs-latest-climate-change-doco-another-pr-victory-for-doubters/
Clive Hamilton, Crikey, 26 April 2012
The strategy of doubt-mongering has been highly effective for climate deniers at exploiting the media’s practice of presenting “two sides” to controversial issues.
Carbon scheme bogged down
http://abcasiapacificnews.com/stories/201204/3482539.htm
ABC Asia Pacific News, 20 April 2012
100 million trees were to be planted in Indonesia under an Australian carbon-reduction scheme. Five years on, only 50,000 seedlings are in the ground.
SCIENCE AND POLITICS
Will climate change tip poor nations' health systems over the edge?
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/climate-conversations/will-climate-change-tip-poor-nations-health-systems-over-the-edge
Thin Lei Win, Alternet, 26 April 2011
Killer health problems such as diarrhoea, malnutrition, malaria and dengue are highly sensitive to climate change and could worsen in the coming decades, health experts agree. But how, where and to what extent remains unclear.
World's glaciers 'out of balance'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17843648
Jonathan Amos, BBC News, 26 April 2012
Earth's glaciers are seriously out of balance with the global climate and are already on their way to losing almost 40% of their volume.
Arctic Ocean could be source of greenhouse gas: study
http://phys.org/news/2012-04-arctic-ocean-source-greenhouse-gas.html
Phys.org, 22 April 2012
The fragile and rapidly changing Arctic region is home to large reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As Earth's climate warms, the methane, frozen in reservoirs stored in Arctic tundra soils or marine sediments, is vulnerable to being released into the atmosphere, where it can add to global warming. Now a multi-institutional study by Eric Kort of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has uncovered a surprising and potentially important new source of Arctic methane: the ocean itself.
Antarctica’s Ice Being Eaten Away From Below
http://www.universetoday.com/94821/antarcticas-ice-being-eaten-away-from-below/
Jason Major, Universe Today, April 25, 2012
Data collected from a NASA ice-watching satellite reveal that the vast ice shelves extending from the shores of western Antarctica are being eaten away from underneath by ocean currents, which have been growing warmer even faster than the air above.
Himalayan scare from melting ice
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/article-2133382/Himalayan-scare-melting-ice.html
Dinesh C Sharma, Daily Mail, 22 April 2012
Naysayers notwithstanding, new studies show that Himalayan glaciers are indeed melting possibly due to climate change
