- Bishop Hill blog - Irish Examiner on post-Cancun world

The Irish Examiner takes a look at the climate world post-Cancun and sees a changed landscape. The author sees campaigning against economic growth as a vote loser in the current circumstances. There is also this:

The talk about a "climate change consensus" never was a scientific consensus about climate change but at most as a political agreement to act and speak as if the major questions surrounding climate change had already been answered.

Yup.

Global tropical cyclone activity still in the tank | Watts Up With That?

Even with the expected active 2010 North Atlantic hurricane season, which accounts on average for about 1/5 of global annual hurricane output, the rest of the global tropics has been historically quiet. The Western North Pacific this year has seen 8-Typhoons, the fewest in at least 65-years of records. Closer to the US mainland, the Eastern North Pacific off the coast of Mexico has uncorked a grand total of 7 tropical storms of which 3 became hurricanes, the fewest since at least 1970. Global, Northern Hemisphere, and Southern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone Accumulated Energy (ACE) remain at decades-low levels. With the fantastic dearth of November and December global hurricane activity, it is also observed that the frequency of global hurricanes has continued an inexorable plunge into into a double-dip recession status. With 2010 [possibly but not probably] being the hottest year ever, we will likely see the fewest number of global tropical cyclones observed in at least three-decades…

The Cancún Agreement—Agreeing to Someday Make Difficult Decisions

The outcome of the U.N.’s climate meeting in Cancún meeting was what we expected. Media reports describe it as “A near-consensus decision” but these happy reports don’t explain that the agreement was “a near-consensus decision” to not make any difficult decisions yet.