• new developments in alternative tech or clean energy (I know Kosmopolit is all over this one)
  
• discussion on mitigation, adaptation in affected areas of our planet
  
• information on political wranglings, with particular reference to the Copenhagen COP a.k.a. the one where Obama saves the planet (because Poznan was the one where everybody was waiting for Obama)
  
• personal, national or international perspectives on climate change
  

Integrating methanol into our energy system would have numerous benefits in the not-so-distant future. As the authors point out, it would make the transportation of liquid natural gas much safer by converting it to less-hazardous liquid methanol before shipping it. Methanol could also be used to produce plastics, synthetic fabrics, and many other non-fuel products currently made from petroleum.

Importantly, methanol can also be produced (in conjunction with an auxiliary electricity source, like nuclear power) by chemically recycling carbon dioxide, which can be found naturally in the air or readily captured from atmosphere-polluting industrial emissions. The methanol produced can, in turn, be used to produce synthetic hydrocarbons and other products now obtained from fossil fuels. If successfully tapped, methanol “has the ability to liberate mankind from its dependence on fossil fuels for transportation and hydrocarbon products,” while reducing the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere.

Consider ethanol as a comparison. The commercial competitiveness of ethanol is somewhat confused by the complex influences of a variety of subsidies and tariffs. By contrast, methanol is currently selling—without any subsidy—for about $0.80/gallon. Given that methanol’s energy content is about half that of gasoline, that price is the equivalent, in energy terms, of gasoline for $1.60/gallon. In other words, we can produce a useful and economically viable vehicle fuel, using a huge domestic and Western hemispheric resource base, at prices lower than gasoline.

WASHINGTON - Even if the world can cap carbon dioxide emissions tied to global warming, expect to see droughts and sea level rise that span centuries, not just decades, according to a new study sponsored by the U.S. government.

"People have imagined that if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide the climate would go back to normal in 100 years, 200 years; that's not true," lead author Susan Solomon told reporters.

Instead, the team concluded, warming tied to higher CO2 "is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop."

During times of energy surplus, sea water would be pumped out of the reservoir into the surrounding North Sea, until it was completely empty. Letting the sea flood back in via turbines emplaced in the dykes could generate 2 gigawatts or more for up to 15 hours at a stretch. In other words, the "Energy Island" could store about 30 gigawatt-hours.

In his first interview since taking office last month, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist said his home state would suffer some of the most devastating effects of global warming if the nation did not act to slow its advance.

The new satellites will work as carbon accountants by keeping a close eye on how the Earth breathes and returning regular audits ... With the additional data that the satellites provide, researchers hope finally to shed light on the Earth’s complicated carbon cycle.

Germany's reliance on lignite-fired power plants have led many to call for a return to nuclear power.

Professor Chris Field, an author of a 2007 landmark report on climate change, said future temperatures "will be beyond anything" predicted.

The CSIRO's Gerry Wilson says once the printable cells reach the market in about five years, the cells will probably be much more efficient.

"The print trials that we were conducting today, those printers typically run at 200 metres a minute, which is 100 kilometres per day.

"If you were printing a solar cell that had only 10 per cent efficiency say, then we calculate that over five months, you'd be able to print enough plastic solar cells to generate a gigawatt of power."

Evidence that human-induced climate change may be affecting the Asian monsoon cycle has been published by a Chinese-US team.

Monsoon rains in Asia are behaving ever more strangely, often with catastrophic effects, an Indian official has told climate experts at the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) meeting in Beijing.

The monsoons always have the capacity to cause flooding, and often do. But when the rains strike at an odd time or in the wrong place they can be devastating. A late onset of monsoon rains in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra state this year caused a mix-up that resulted in 400 drought-struck villages being wiped away by floodwaters, along with more than 700 deaths, Nagpur legislative member Devendra Fadnavis told conference-goers on 11 November.

In West Africa, annual rainfall has decreased 20 to 40% from the period 1931-1960 to 1968-1990.

Whacky as it is, AIR is a book with a message. So, for every copy of AIR bought this May Day (Friday, May 1st), I will donate $1 to the Koru Foundation, a UK-based charity that helps impoverished communites the world over develop low-cost renewable energy projects, bringing climate-friendly electricity to villages without a single light bulb. Ironically, the people most threatened by climate change are those who had the least responsibility in creating it. I saw this firsthand in North Africa, where desertification is already destroying ancient farming cultures. By acting now, we can help ease the burden on our planet while bringing power to communities without it.

Here is what to do:

1. On Friday, May 1st, click here to purchase a copy of AIR: Letters from Lost Countries from Amazon.com
2. Email info [at] gwillowwilson [dot] com. Write ‘May Day AIRlift’ in the Subject line. In the body of the email, copy and paste your Amazon order number. Do NOT include any financial information, your address, or anything else! Just the order number. [Note: you can also buy from your LCS; if you do, send a scan or photo of the receipt instead. Black out any account numbers/addresses first.]
3. Sit back, wait for your book to arrive, and feel good about having done something for our planet.

Recently EarthTronics, which is based in Muskegon, Michigan, has developed a wind turbine that can be used by individual homes. EarthTronics also claims that it can operate at speeds as low as 2 miles an hour. Consequently, homeowners this fall will be able to buy a wind turbine at hardware stores that tackles the small wind industry’s bete noire: slow wind. This turbine is named as Honeywell Wind Turbine and it will be distributed through Ace Hardware stores in the U.S. It will be sold for $4,500. WindTronics developed the turbine and licensed the technology to buildings systems giant Honeywell.

His pickup truck appears to run like any other and easily reached 40 mph and above on local roads on a recent day, but it has no gas tanks. Nichols says he can get it up to more than 80 mph. The only noticeable difference is a contraption, right behind the cab's rear window, that takes up some of the back and looks somewhat like a wood stove.

A metal barrel, where the heating occurs, extends just above the cab's roof. The gas is captured from the barrel and a vacuum system sucks it through piping that runs under the truck to the engine.

Nichols says he's driven it 10,000 miles without gas, including a trip about three months ago when he loaded up the back with about 400 pounds of wood and drove some 600 miles across Connecticut, then to New Hampshire and Boston before returning home. A pound of wood or other material will fuel his truck for 1 to 2 miles, meaning that the truck costs about 8 cents a mile to fuel, compared to roughly 19 cents per mile if it used gasoline at today's prices.

"Done right," biofuels can be produced in large quantities and have multiple benefits, but only if they come from feedstocks produced with low life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, as well as minimal competition with food production. This consensus emerges in a new journal article by researchers from the University of Minnesota, Princeton, MIT and the University of California, Berkeley.
....
The paper coincides with climate change policy debates in Congress, and tackles land use issues that have generated much controversy in recent years: Specifically, the greenhouse gases released when land is cleared to grow biofuel crops (or when other lands are cleared to compensate for food crops displaced by biofuel crops) can-for decades to centuries-exceed those from petroleum use.
...
To balance biofuel production, food security and emissions reduction, the authors conclude that the global biofuels industry must focus on five major sources of renewable biomass:

+ Perennial plants grown on degraded lands abandoned from agricultural use

+ Crop residues

+ Sustainably harvested wood and forest residues

+ Double crops and mixed cropping systems

+ Municipal and industrial wastes

These sources can provide considerable amounts of biomass, at least 500 million tons per year in the United States alone, without incurring any significant land use carbon dioxide releases.

"We need to transition away from using food for biofuels toward more sustainable feedstocks that can be produced with much less impact on the environment," said the U of M's Hill, a resident fellow of the Institute on the Environment.

It's one of the most common lines you hear from cap and trade opponents: "Well, just look at Europe." You see, the European Union Emissions Trading System was long thought to be a spectacular failure. It initially allowed utility companies to reap massive profits, since they were given their permits for free and passed the cost of carbon onto consumers--nearly the opposite of what was supposed to happen. Additionally, for a long time, many thought ETS would be sorely inadequate to get EU nations to meet their Kyoto targets, making the whole process a waste of time. Well, the days of bashing Europe's cap and trade are over--a new report reveals that despite its major stumblings, it's actually been a spectacular success.

According to Climate Progress, the report, Climate Policy and Industrial Competitiveness (pdf), completed by the economists, climate scientists, and academics of the German Marshall Fund, reveals that Europe's cap and trade has lead many countries in the EU to meet their carbon targets as agreed to in the Kyoto Protocol.

The trading system has created a healthy carbon market now worth 56 billion US dollars, and has reduced Europe's emissions by 50-100 million metric tons a year since 2005. In other words, the cap and trade has been responsible for Europe reducing its carbon emissions by 2.5-5% annually. Which is indeed a pretty impressive achievement. And the success has been largely due to the fact that the system's design separated its implementation process into 3 phases, so there would be pause for analysis and adjustment. This allowed policymakers to consistently reevaluate the system, and they were able to stop problems, like the aforementioned practice of sticking consumers with the cost of carbon.

So, let's see. Hugely significant amounts of carbon emissions cut, and Kyoto targets within reach? Check. A robust, investment-attracting carbon market? Check. Flexibility and room for further improvement? Check. Sounds like a success to me.

According to the analysis, global PV production increased to about 7.3 GW in 2008, an 80% rise on the previous year.

Europe's production of solar cells rose from 1.1 GW to 1.9 GW, while the installed capacity increased threefold to 4.8 GW. This was mainly led by Spain, where installed capacity almost quintupled from 560 MW in 2007 to 2.5–2.7 GW.

The cumulative installed PV electricity generation capacity in the world was around 15 GW, with Europe accounting for more than 60% of this (9.5 GW).

The study, conducted by the JRC Institute for Energy (IE), gives an overview of current activities in research, manufacturing and market implementation in this sector. The report shows that European PV production has grown on average by 50% per annum since 1999 and its market share has increased to 26% in 2008. In terms of electricity generation, photovoltaics contributed in 2008 for about 0.35 % of Europe's final electricity consumption.

However, the report does note that global investment in renewable energies and energy efficiency was hit by the financial crisis in late 2008 and early 2009, “but is now showing signs of a strong recovery.” Identifying a significant slowdown in investment in the second half of 2008 (-10% in the third quarter; -23% in the fourth), that continued in the first quarter of 2009 (down 47% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008), this trend started to reverse in the second quarter (+83% compared with the first quarter of 2009).

The analysis names China as the new leading producer of solar cells, with an annual production of about 2.4 GW, followed by Europe with 1.9 GW, Japan with 1.2 GW and Taiwan with 0.8 GW. Should this trend continue, China might be expected have secured about 32% of world-wide production capacity by 2012.

Why can't all the media and politicians just say "hey, having a clean environment is a good thing, let's all work to help with that." No it's "We gotta change our way or we'll destroy the planet."

Climate change in a natural process.

The human effect upon it exists, but not the scale many keep claiming.

The whole thing just sounds like a scam on too many levels.

I don't trust the a lot of the sources for the data presented supporting Global Warming nor many of the methods used to gather said data.

Statisticians who analyzed the data found a distinct decades-long upward trend in the numbers, but could not find a significant drop in the past 10 years in either data set. The ups and downs during the last decade repeat random variability in data as far back as 1880.

Saying there's a downward trend since 1998 is not scientifically legitimate, said David Peterson, a retired Duke University statistics professor and one of those analyzing the numbers.

Identifying a downward trend is a case of "people coming at the data with preconceived notions," said Peterson, author of the book "Why Did They Do That? An Introduction to Forensic Decision Analysis."

ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2009) — The possibility that climate change might simply be a natural variation like others that have occurred throughout geologic time is dimming, according to evidence in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published October 19.

The research reveals that sediments retrieved by University at Buffalo geologists from a remote Arctic lake are unlike those seen during previous warming episodes.