The Commentator - Kyoto: The last rites

It’s uniquely appropriate that November’s UN Climate Summit – the last before the Kyoto Protocol formally expires on December 31st – is taking place in Doha. In the league of the world’s highest per-capita greenhouse gas emitters, Qatar currently ranks at the very top. Where better than the Qatari capital to perform the last rites over the Kyoto Protocol?

Not that that’s how November’s talks will be sold, you understand. In typical UN double-speak, the Climate Summit secretariat will fashion a form of words suggesting that the Kyoto process is alive and well and merely moving into a ‘new phase’. So why do the terms ‘flogging’ and ‘dead horse’ come to mind?

Warning Signs: Throwing Money at Climate Lies

Some climatologists are predicting another ice age and they would be right because the interval between ice ages is about 11,500 years and the Earth is at the end of such an interval. It will arrive very swiftly and hang around for thousands of years.

Earth’s carbon sink downsized : Nature News & Comment

researchers report this week that the capacity for land plants to absorb more CO2 will be much lower than previously thought, owing to limitations in soil nutrients

If Toyota thinks electric cars suck, why don't politicians?

Here's a question. Who do you think knows the most about consumer demand for motor vehicles?   [Hat tip:  FV]

Ignoring global warming is 'reckless' of the government, warn campaigners | Environment | The Guardian

The signatories have outlined to the Guardian what they will do differently over the next 50 months to prevent the threshold being breached and challenge the government and opposition to do the same. Ruth Bond, chairwoman of the National Federation of Women's Institutes, will try to give every child practical skills such as cooking to tackle obesity and instil the value of food, and growing food, which gives them an appreciation of the natural environment.

North Central Climate Science Center Hosts Ribbon Cutting For New CSU Research Facility - News & Information - Colorado State University

FORT COLLINS - Climate change has become one of the most important and contentiously debated global issues facing society today, and the North Central Climate Science Center (NC CSC) is hosting a ribbon-cutting event and reception to mark the construction and launch of its new facility at Colorado State University’s Natural and Environmental Sciences Building from 2-4 p.m. Oct. 2. As a hub of climate science research and innovation, CSU was selected as the base for one of eight U.S. Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers established across the nation.