Germany ends tar sands research with Canada; Enviro ‘press releases were getting harsher and harsher’ | JunkScience.com

Possibly the French should have fired harsh press releases at the invader in 1870, 1914 and 1940?

Banning the Big Gulp Ban - NYTimes.com

The soda ban would have increased choices in many movie theaters, where 32 ounces is the smallest size you can buy. If this is about freedom, it’s about the freedom of marketers to sell vectors of disease; we should all be in favor of restricting that freedom.  [Via Junk Science]

Global warming will lead to more hurricane surges - The Times of India

"We find that 0.4 degrees Celsius warming of the climate corresponds to a doubling of the frequency of extreme storm surges like the one following Hurricane Katrina. With the global warming we have had during the 20th century, we have already crossed the threshold where more than half of all Katrinas are due to global warming," explains Aslak Grinsted from the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen.

"If the temperature rises an additional degree, the frequency will increase by 3-4 times and if the global climate becomes two degrees warmer, there will be about 10 times as many extreme storm surges. This means that there will be a Katrina magnitude storm surge every other year," Grinsted added.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New paper finds CO2 spiked to levels higher than the present during termination of last ice age

A new paper published in Quaternary Science Reviews reconstructs CO2 levels during the termination of the last ice age and finds CO2 spiked to levels near or even exceeding those of the present, obviously without any human influence. According to the authors, "The record clearly demonstrates that [CO2 levels were] significantly higher than usually reported for the Last [Glacial] Termination," with levels of up to ~425 ppm about 12,750 years ago, which exceeds the present CO2 concentration of 395 ppm.

Flashback: Scientists: Carbon dixode at highest level in 800,000 years – USATODAY.com

It's been at least 800,000 years — probably more — since Earth saw carbon dioxide levels in the 400s, Butler and other climate scientists said.