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November 20, 2009

Alberta oil sands tailings ponds: Can they be reclaimed? (via @sciencemagazine)

A tailings pond coming from the Syncrude mine in Wood Buffalo, near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Photo by alexabboud/flickr

Ecology: Eco-Alchemy in Alberta -- Kean 326 (5956): 1052 -- Science
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/326/5956/1052

"There's a roaring debate in Canada about whether tailings ponds--the standing pools of wastewater slurry that are created when oil is extracted from "tar sands"--and oil mines in general, are ecologically salvageable..."

also see: National Geographic, March 2009: The Canadian Oil Boom: Scraping Bottom

Pictures by Peter Essick

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November 20, 2009

RealClimate on "The CRU hack," the unauthorized release of Climate Research Unit emails

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack/

"...More interesting is what is not contained in the emails. There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to ‘get rid of the MWP’, no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no ‘marching orders’ from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords. The truly paranoid will put this down to the hackers also being in on the plot though...:

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November 20, 2009

Reading: Bradford Plumer @tnr: Global Warring: Don't Militarize the Climate Debate

http://www.tnr.com/article/environment-energy/global-warring

"...even if climate-bill backers have finally found the potent argument they've been searching for, that still leaves the substantive issue: To what extent is global warming a national security concern for the United States? Right now, the Pentagon, the Armed Forces, and other security experts are trying to figure out just what dire consequences a warming planet might bring. And, as it turns out, the answers are more complex than the simple sales pitch might suggest...."

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November 20, 2009

"..look at other indicators of real human security. Are girls returning to school? Are women safe..(via @crisisgroup @globalpost)

From International Crisis Group:
"[The world has] historically looked at security in a traditional and maybe too narrow way: demobilizing the belligerents, trying to reintegrate the ex-combatants -- a military approach to security. But we need to look at other indicators of real human security. Are girls returning to school? Are women safe in their communities? Is civil society occupying some space? Because that is the test -- security of the people, not just whether warring factions have laid down their arms". 

Louise Arbour, President of International Crisis Group, in an interview with the GlobalPost, 18 November 2009

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November 20, 2009

Climate sceptics claim leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists (via @guardianeco)

"Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world's leading climate scientists over the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online. The computer files were apparently accessed earlier this week from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, a world-renowned centre focused on the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change..."

Blog cited in Guardian article: The Air Vent

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November 20, 2009

Cellulosic Ethanol: Who Cares about peak oil (or the soil) when you have corn cobs? (via @salon @koxinga21)

"The nation's biggest ethanol firm says costs for corn-cob biofuel are coming down...

Andrew Leonard: "...But the question I always have when hearing about biofuels made from farm "waste" is what happens to soil fertility when you keep extracting more and more plant material from the life-cycle of the farm, and turn it into fuel?..."

"...What's the good of replacing gasoline with cellulosic ethanol made from farm waste, if we need to burn more oil to replace the soil nutrients that we are subtracting from the earth?"

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November 19, 2009

Except for the U.S.: Nations Unveil Plans to Rein in Emissions (via @nytimes)

"...We now have offers of targets from all industrialized countries except the United States," Mr. de Boer said. He emphasized that he was looking to the United States for "a numerical midterm target and commitment to financial support..."
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November 19, 2009

U.S. Has an Energy Surplus That Could Last (via @nytimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/business/energy-environment/19SURPLUS.html

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November 19, 2009

Quick Shift: European "Climate change catastrophe took just months" (via @timesonline)

"Six months is all it took to flip Europe’s climate from warm and sunny into the last ice age, researchers have found...."

also see: COP-15: Ice age engulfed Europe in months

"It would be like taking Ireland today and moving it up to Svalbard," says William Patterson, co-author of a new study that questions previous research.

also see: New Scientist: Mini ice age took hold of Europe in months 

William Patterson, University of Saskatchewan

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November 19, 2009

Biodiversity in Crisis: Nature Publishes a Special (via @naturenews)

"Nature marks the anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species 150 years ago this week, with a special on biodiversity. 

"As nations prepare progress reports on their pact to reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010, International Year of Biodiversity, Pavan Sukhdev urges governments to secure the flows of nature's 'public goods'. Meanwhile, William R. Turner and colleagues argue that natural ecosystems be made a bulwark against climate change, Robert J. Smith and colleagues propose that local agencies need to set the conservation research agenda and Douglas Erwin calls upon paleontologists to create models of the root causes of biodiversity. Features examine Brazil's forests and species barcodes, and there's a profile of ecosystem services advocate Gretchen Daily."
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