Frost decimates Austrian Xmas tree harvest

Xmas trees will be in short supply this year after a late frost that hit parts of Europe at the weekend was reported to have caused hundreds of millions of pounds worth of damage to young trees.

A spokesman for the Austrian Association of Christmas Tree Growers, Franz Raith, said: "The young trees had just started with their spring growth, but the frost has killed all of that off. Between 20 and 40 per cent of the trees will not be able to recover. Most farmers will be lucky to cover their costs this year - many will not survive."

Americans get most information about climate models from Rush Limbaugh | Carbon Brief

The Rush Limbaugh Show provided the most explanation of climate models to Americans in 2007. Limbaugh
devoted more time to talking about climate models than The New Yorker, The Nation or Time magazine, more than NPR's Science Friday
show, and more than any of the US outlets generally considered to be on-board with mainstream climate science.

That's according to new research in Nature Climate Change which highlights the generally shoddy job the US
media has done of explaining climate models, and the effects the media's tendency to emphasise the inaccuracy of climate models has
had on public opinion.

Bonn: Carbon credit price “lower than a snake’s belly” say critics of new scheme | RTCC

“The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has been a failure under any metric you look at,” said Oscar Reyes, Associate Fellow, of the Institute for Policy Studies.

“Its credit price is lower than a snake’s belly and its environmental integrity is about the same – there’s little proof it has produced real, actual, additional emission reductions – just see the comments by Indian investors of preparing ‘double’ accounting sheets,” added Reyes, referring to a Wikileaks cable.

The document in question suggests that some Indian projects that were going to take place regardless, bent the rules in order to secure additional funding from the CDM.

U.S. Solar Tariffs on Chinese Cells May Boost Prices - Bloomberg

The U.S. yesterday imposed tariffs of as much as 250 percent on Chinese-made solar cells to aid
domestic manufacturers beset by foreign competition, though critics said the decision may end up raising prices and hurting
the U.S. renewable energy industry.