The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report today on 2009’s climate, which says the decade of the 2000s was the warmest since readings were first kept. In a phone interview with reporters today, Peter Stott of the U.K. Met Office, a contributor to the 224-page report, said the scientists who wrote it had sought, among other things, to draw attention to 10 variables he said “most intuitively” reflect temperature. He called that part of the report a “response” to allegations in recent months that scientists at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia or NASA—or both—could jigger the record to fake warming, particularly by purportedly skewing records of land surface temperature. From the report:

If the land surface records were systematically flawed and the globe had not really warmed, then it would be almost impossible to explain the concurrent changes in this wide range of indicators produced by many independent groups.

What follows are the 10 variables that show warming, according to the report:

Air Temperature Near Earth’s Surface: The 1960s and 1970s were cooler than the 2000s by about 0.6°C, the 1980s cooler by about 0.35°C, and the 1990s cooler by 0.2°C. Seven sets of data were used to come to that conclusion, with some of the same raw data in several of those sets (p. 28).

Humidity: A warmer atmosphere means a moister one, and three sets of data each show a steady rise since 1970, with peaks in “1987/88, 1997/98, 2002, 2006/07, and 2009 (/10)” (p. 31).

Glaciers: A negative “mass balance” means that glaciers lost more mass than they gained; 2008 was the 18th straight year this number was negative for the world’s alpine glaciers. For example, the report says “of 93 Austrian glaciers surveyed in 2009, 85 receded, 7 were stationary, and 1 advanced”; most glaciers receded by more than 14 meters in 2009, “slightly higher than in 2008″ (p. 47).

Meanwhile, the “34 widest marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland lost 101 km2 ice area in 2009″ (p. 107). Meanwhile, Antarctica’s climate has largely warmed in the past year-although “significant ice loss has occurred along the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica in the last decade.” Scientists cannot link the loss to regional warming (p. 126) but say warmer seas may be the culprit.

Snow Cover: Each decade since 1970, the extent of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has fallen more and more below the 40-year average. Winter snow cover fell in the 1980s and 1990s but rose slightly in the 2000s (p. 34).

Temperatures Over Oceans: Analysis of five sets of data shows that the air temperatures over the world’s seas have risen steadily since 1970 (p. 26).

Temperatures Over Land: Four sets of data show the same trend, with slightly less warming in the past few years (p. 26).

Ocean Temperatures: The water temperature at the surface of the ocean has risen more or less steadily since roughly the 1980s. Compared with the 1971-2000 average, 2009 was the fourth warmest year for sea temperatures, “behind 1998, 2003, and 2005, the top three warmest [ocean temperature] years since 1950″ (p. 55).

Sea Level: Since 2003, seas have risen by 2 to 3 mm a year (p. 71).

Sea Ice: The total area in Arctic seas covered by floating ice has dropped by roughly 4% per year; around Antarctica, sea ice has increased by roughly 1% per decade (details here).

Ocean Heat Content: The stored heat in the world’s seas has risen steeply since roughly 1990, according to three separate data sets (p. 58).

A nuclear reactor to be built in France will be more expensive and take more time than originally planned, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The project will now cost an extra €1 billion ($1.3 billion), and it will be delayed by two years from the original start date of 2013.

Électricité de France SA (EDF) is one of Europe’s biggest utilities, and it has been building the 1,650-megawatt EPR nuclear reactor in Flamanville, Normandy. The reactor was designed by Areva SA, which is also developing a similar project in Finland. That reactor is also over budget and behind schedule and was originally slated to be finished in 2009 for a total cost of €3 billion. The cost has now been exceeded by €2.7 billion.

France is trying to get an EPR in operation as quickly as possible so it can corner the world market for nuclear reactors. A report by the former EDF chief executive officer, François Roussely, published Tuesday said EPR should make its third-generation reactors smaller.

The report found that the ability of the French nuclear industry to build new reactors has now come into question due to the delays (Tara Patel, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 29, 2010).

RES= Renewable Energy Standard.
Without an RES, the Senate is endangering at least 360,000 jobs: 85,000 currently employed in the wind industry and the potential 274,000 additional jobs created by an RES.
An overwhelming majority of Americans — 77% — support a national Renewable Electricity Standard. This support extends across party lines and includes 65% of Republicans, 69% of Independents, 92% of Democrats.
Let’s get going. Write or call your US Senators and let them know how you feel.

And it probably won’t be the last.

The oil and gas industry has a long history of spills in the Gulf of Mexico, dumping 517,847 barrels of petroleum into the Gulf between 1964 and 2009, federal records show.

In all, those spills double the volume of oil that leaked in the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. The oil has reached as far as Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and has killed thousands of birds and other wildlife.

The records from the former Minerals Management Service may not even tell the whole story. In at least one case, the amount of oil recorded was 10 times smaller than the actual size of the spill. Regulators rely heavily on company estimates when organizing the data.

The data contradicts the talking points of many industry supporters. The American Petroleum Institute’s president, Jack Gerard, called the BP spill the “first time an incident of this magnitude has happened,” and Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) has praised the almost “astonishingly safe, clean history” in the Gulf.

Recently, technology improvements have lessened the spills, and the flow rates have been modest since 2006. In 2009, the largest spill was 1,500 barrels.

Some say the spill records indicate a need for more safety regulations and oversight, since the many spills resulted from poor maintenance and accidents (Steven Mufson, Washington Post, July 24).

I agree with Tom Friedman on this one.
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
The hour is late, but there is still a sliver of time to pass a serious energy bill out of this Congress. To do so, though, would require President Obama to rustle up votes with a passion that he has failed to exhibit up to now, and, more importantly, it would require at least seven Republican senators to put the national interest above party and politics. Yes, I know that is all unlikely. You can laugh now. But just remember this: If we don’t get a serious energy bill out of this Congress, and Republicans retake the House and Senate, we may not have another shot until the next presidential term or until we get a “perfect storm” — a climate or energy crisis that is awful enough to finally end our debate on these issues but not so awful as to end the world. But, hey, by 2012, China should pretty much own the clean-tech industry and we’ll at least be able to get some good deals on electric cars.

The energy bill now being discussed in the Senate — which would raise energy-efficiency standards, require utilities to get 15 percent or more of their power from renewable sources, like wind and solar, and create a limited cap on carbon emissions from power plants — is already watered down just to get 53 or so Democratic votes. But at least it gets us started on ending our addiction to oil and mitigating climate change. Unfortunately, right now it is not clear that a single Republican senator will even vote for this watered-down bill.

That is pathetic. Rather than think seriously about our endless dependence on oil, the G.O.P. has focused its energies on making “climate change” a four-letter word and labeling any Democrat who supports legislation that would in any way raise energy prices to diminish our dependence on oil as a “carbon taxer.”

Unfortunately, Obama and the Democrats never effectively fought back. They should have said: “O.K., you Republicans don’t believe in global warming? Fine. Forget about global warming. That’s between you and your beach house. How about this? Do you believe in population growth? Do you believe in the American dream? Because, according to the U.N., the world’s population is going to grow from roughly 6.7 billion people today to about 9.2 billion by 2050. And in today’s integrated world, more and more of those 9.2 billion will aspire to, and be able to, live like Americans — with American-size cars, homes and Big Macs. In that world, demand for fossil fuels is going to go through the roof — and all the bad things that go with it.

“If we take that threat seriously now and pass an energy bill that begins to end our oil addiction, we can shrink the piles of money we send to the worst regimes in the world, strengthen our dollar by keeping more at home, clean up our air, take away money from the people who finance the mosques and madrassas that keep many Muslim youths backward, angry and anti-American and stimulate a whole new industry — one China is already leapfrogging us on — clean-tech. Nothing would improve our economic and national security more, yet Republicans won’t lift one finger to make it happen.

“They would rather we send more Americans to fight terrorism in the Middle East, let petro-states hostile to our interests get richer and let China take the lead in the next great global industry than ask Americans to pay a little more for the gas they use or the carbon pollution they put into the air. If OPEC, China and Russia could vote, they would be 100 percent supportive of the Republicans.

“How about we stop honoring our soldiers and our military families and start helping them? Nope. The Republican view of fighting the war on terrorism is that rather than ask all of us to make a small sacrifice to weaken our foes and buttress our troops, we should ask only a few of us to make the ultimate sacrifice. And that’s called being tough?”

It gets worse. As Fred Krupp, the president of Environmental Defense Fund, notes: U.S. utility companies today “are sitting on billions of dollars in job-creating capital — but they will not invest in new energy projects until they have certainty on what their future carbon obligations will be. In just one state, Indiana, there are 25 power plants 50 years old or older. The fleet needs to be modernized, and Senate paralysis is keeping it from happening. A recent study from the Peterson Institute projects annual investment in the sector in the next 10 years would rise by 50 percent as a result of climate legislation — an increase of nearly $11 billion a year.” That’s new employment from a private sector stimulus.

Can you imagine how high the stock market would soar and how easy a compromise with Democrats would become if Republicans offered an energy policy consistent with their values and our interests? What if the G.O.P. said: We will support a carbon tax provided one-third of the revenue goes toward cutting corporate taxes, one-third toward cutting payroll taxes for every working American and one-third toward paying down the deficit. The G.O.P. would actually help us get a better energy policy.

Surely there are seven Republican senators who can see this. Aren’t there?

Here I am at a gathering for our local delegate who has been active on global warming. We drank cool beers. What a sacrifice for our cause !

Last month’s combined global land and ocean surface temperature made it the warmest June on record and the warmest on record averaged for any April-June and January-June periods, according to NOAA. Worldwide average land surface temperature was the warmest on record for June and the April-June period, and the second warmest on record for the year-to-date (January-June) period, behind 2007.

The monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, which is based on records going back to 1880, is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.

ELECTRICITY: Alt-power projects outpace new fossil-fuel efforts — report (07/15/2010)
Nathanial Gronewold, E&E reporter
UNITED NATIONS — For the second year in a row more alternative energy power capacity was added to electricity grids in Europe and the United States than power from coal, natural gas or nuclear reactors, according to a report released today.

That trend will be seen worldwide by the end of this year or next, with China leading the way in alternative energy projects, a U.N. agency and a Paris-based public policy organization say.

More than 50 percent of new generating capacity added in the United States last year came from wind, solar and other clean energy sources, according to analyses by the U.N. Environment Program and the nonprofit Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).

And though new investment is stalling in Europe, more than 60 percent of new installed capacity in E.U. nations in 2009 came from renewables, the report says.

Still, overall investment levels plunged last year, falling victim to the global recession

As my friends in 350.org say:
Right now in Washington D.C., Senators are preparing to debate climate and energy legislation.

Thousands of lobbyists are sweeping the Hill, millions of dollars are being dumped into TV ads, and the BP’s of the world (Big Polluters and Bad Politicians) are doing everything they can to weaken and corrupt the climate bill.

Watching this debate unfold reaffirms one of our core beliefs at 350.org — solving the climate crisis will take a strong grassroots movement. Until we have a strong climate movement that can make our politicians work for us, they’ll keep working for the big polluters. We need to get to work changing our country from the bottom up.

Everywhere I look, that work is beginning to happen.

Right here in the US, and in over 100 countries on Earth, thousands of communities are already getting to work on climate solutions and preparing for our major day of action on October 10th. Hundreds of universities in China, India and the US are joining the Great Power Race, a campus clean energy competition. Tens of thousands of you have told President Obama to get to work putting solar panels back on the White House.

Now, it’s time to turn up the pressure on Washington.

As Congress finally begins to debate climate and energy legislation, take a minute to ask your Senators a simple question: are you working with me or are you working with the big polluters? Call the Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121 and ask to speak to your reps and leave them a message.

And if you want to read this great report, here is the web link.
Western Resource Advocates
http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/water/lifeline/lifeline.pdf