The Real Holes in Climate Science

"Like any other field, research on climate change has some fundamental gaps, although not the ones typically claimed by sceptics. Quirin Schiermeier takes a hard look at some of the biggest problem areas."

The Journal Nature has a brief, but good review of where the research focuses are in climate science as of this date. Do not know if it is open to the public.
Published online 20 January 2010, Nature 463, 284-287 (2010)
Subcriber link: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100120/full/463284a.html
Print version: Nature 463, 284-287 (2010)

China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy -NYT 01/30/2010

" China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China." read more at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/business/energy-environment/31renew.html?ref=science

Implications of incorporating air-quality co-benefits into climate change policymaking

Implications of incorporating air-quality co-benefits into climate change policymaking
G F Nemet1,2, T Holloway1 and P Meier3
1 Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA
2 La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA
3 Energy Institute, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Published 22 January 2010
Online at stacks.  
http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1748-9326/5/1/014007/
Abstract:
"We present an analysis of the barriers and opportunities for incorporating air quality co-benefits into climate policy assessments. It is well known that many strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions also decrease emissions of health-damaging air pollutants and precursor species, including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide. In a survey of previous studies we found a range of estimates for the air quality co-benefits of climate change mitigation of $2-196/tCO2 with a mean of $49/tCO2, and the highest co-benefits found in developing countries. These values, although of a similar order of magnitude to abatement cost estimates, are only rarely included in integrated assessments of climate policy. Full inclusion of these co-benefits would have pervasive implications for climate policy in areas including: optimal policy stringency, overall costs, distributional effects, robustness to discount rates, incentives for international cooperation, and the value of adaptation, forests, and climate engineering relative to mitigation. Under-valuation results in part from uncertainty in climatic damages, valuation inconsistency, and institutional barriers. Because policy debates are framed in terms of cost minimization, policy makers are unlikely to fully value air quality co-benefits unless they can be compared on an equivalent basis with the benefits of avoided climatic damages. While air quality co-benefits have been prominently portrayed as a hedge against uncertainty in the benefits of climate change abatement, this assessment finds that full inclusion of co-benefits depends on—rather than substitutes for—better valuation of climate damages."

Davos Diary 2010, New York Times

01/27-31/2010
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/category/davos-2010/

Tips for Tough Times

Courtesy of Oregon State University Extension, tips for tough times.
"In tough times, managing individual household expenses can be a great concern. For some people, wading through pages of long words to find help can be overwhelming. In response, OSU Extension has developed several 1-page pdf files, each with 10 tips on simple ways to cut back and save money."

Thanks Viviane!
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/tough_times/ten-tips

And, here is a handy set of factsheets ( in PDF format) from University of Wisconsin Extension Managing Between Jobs  http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/waupaca/flp/ManagingBetweenJobs.html

'Fear The Boom And Bust'

"A rap video made by George Mason University economist and Planet Money friend, Russ Roberts, and Spike TV executive producer .....In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, ... sing about why there's a "boom and bust" cycle in modern economies and good reason to fear it. ...Ke$ha says, "it's legit, it's really good rapping."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/01/watch_fear_the_boom_and_bust.html

AB-649 (Wisconsin, climate, energy)

Wisconsin Legislative Council Description:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/091210lege_council_desription.pdf
Full text of bill:
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2009/data/AB-649.pdf

High Drama

An interesting post re the IPCC process.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/01/the-ipcc-is-not-infallible-shock/#more-2773

London Calling

"Climate change warming has melted so much Arctic ice that a telecommunication group is moving forward with a project that was unthinkable just a few years ago -- laying underwater fiber-optic cable between Tokyo and London by way of the Northwest Passage.

The proposed system would nearly cut in half the time it takes to send messages from the United Kingdom to Asia, said Walt Ebell, CEO of Kodiak-Kenai Cable Co. The route is the shortest underwater path between Tokyo and London."
Read more... http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_14248762

Massachusetts?

The Republican win in Massachusetts is being examined by many. Journalists in the EU are writing that it means the end of Cap & Trade legislation in the U.S. Congress for the time being. Also, that will slow international movement to a post-Kyoto accord.
But U.S. legislative action was already unlikely;
"THE END OF CAP-AND-TRADE
From a purely numerical perspective, the Massachusetts election makes only a marginal difference. With the real division running through the centre of the Democratic Party, rather than between the parties, cap-and-trade was never going to pass on a 60-40 party-line vote. It was always going to need at least some Republican votes. So the loss of one Democrat makes only a small difference. "
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/01/20/massachusetts-election-kills-cap-and-trade/

My take;

1. Absent major U.S. government incentives ala what is happening in Korea, Japan, and China (unlikely); the capital flowing into green tech/products manufacturing will continue to go to the Eastern Rim.
When China thinks it will have unstoppable market dominance, it will join the effort for international CO2 regulation, since an international framework would then boost its "green" exports, and its current massive investments in manufacturing green energy tech will be (due to economy of scale) well into domestic deployment.

2. If you are doing education re climate change in the U.S., concentrate mostly on adaptation.

And while I am at it....Rising Tigers?

Climatebiz article about China's mega-investing in green tech: Green China: Friend or Foe? http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/01/12/green-china-friend-or-foe

Here is the report mentioned in the article; Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant
http://www.itif.org/files/2009-rising-tigers.pdf

10 Climate Trends That Will Shape Business in 2010

From the folks at Climatebiz, 10 Climate Trends That Will Shape Business in 2010
http://www.climatebiz.com/blog/2010/01/14/10-climate-trends-will-shape-business-2010?page=0%2C1

Climate Change Adaptation for Land Managers

Check this out; from the site in my last post.
An online course:
http://www.fs.fed.us/ccrc/hjar/

U.S. Forest Service Climate Change site

Here is a very packed resource site re temperate U.S. area forests and climate change:
http://www.fs.fed.us/ccrc/

Something for Eastern U.S. Birders & Foresters

USDA has a nifty little resource, a Climate Change Bird Atlas, and a tree atlas for the Eastern United States.
http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas/

Sustainable Communities Network

Interesting and useful site, Sustainable Communities Network.
http://www.sustainable.org/
A nice personal CC mitigation handout: http://www.sustainable.org/information/ThinkSmart_GlobalWarming_A.pdf

The Psychology of Climate Change Communication

The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Columbia University has published The Psychology of Climate Change Communication http://cred.columbia.edu/guide/  . It is a "A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public."
Thanks to Diana M. C. Rashash of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service for pointing this one out.

An interesting example of science and foresight

The American Scientist has "reprinted" a classic,
Carbon Dioxide and the Climate by Gilbert N. Plass

A 1956 American Scientist article explores climate change; two contemporary commentaries illuminate its relevance to the present. Gilbert N. Plass, James Rodger Fleming, Gavin Schmidt.
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2010/1/carbon-dioxide-and-the-climate/1