[GWSG] Straight AP stories; N20 vs. CH4; 138 mayors; less clouds; Hansen's hopes; sinking coasts; temp correction

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The AP has circulated a straight story on the necessity for international action on climate change.  It ran in at least 480 papers and other media worldwide (including our local paper, which didn’t show up on my Google search).  No real talk about solutions, just about the failure at Copenhagen and the dim prospects from Cancun; on the other hand, no interviews with John Cristy, Richard Lindzen, Lord Monckton, Bjorn Lomborg, or Patrick Michaels, and nothing from the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, or the Heartland Institute.  http://o.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013484744_climateconference21.html  It was followed a couple of days later by another straight AP story on methane release from melting Arctic permafrost by the same correspondent, Charles Hanley.  (An alternative AP version, by Arthur Max, was also released.  It is less technical, but similarly propaganda free.)   http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/aug/30/troubling-bubbles/

2.  Increased nitrous oxide in the atmosphere works to deplete methane.  It is not clear what the net effect on warming is.  http://www.nature.com/nclimate/2010/101123/full/nclimate1015.html

3.  138 mayors from cities around the world have signed an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  The carbon Cities Climate Registry in Bonn will provide a central statistical base for the effort.  http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/22/world.mayor.summit.review/

4.  A study of the modeling of clouds in the Journal of Climate reports that we may have underestimated the temperatures ahead because we have overestimated the cloud cover under increased temperatures.  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/uoha-scm112210.php

5.  In part 1 of James Hansen’s explanation of why he is optimistic about the chances for effective action to control global warming, he reports on a trip to China and on the possibility that China and other willing nations will adopt significant controls on carbon, and, through border duties, force the US to go along.  He has lost hope that our government is capable of acting with sufficient rigor without coercion because of the corrupting influence of fossil fuel corporations.  Perhaps those corporations are the barbarians he defeats in his fantasy at the Great Wall.   http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2010/20101124_ChinaBarbarians1.pdf

6.  Norfolk, VA, is experiencing tidal flooding.  Through a combination of subsidence and global warming the sea level has risen 14.5 inches since 1930.  The city is faced with making adaptation plans in the midst of a growing mess, and furnishes a good incentive for timely planning.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/science/earth/26norfolk.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y  On the Pacific island of Nui, salt water intrusion from sea level rise is making it harder to raise their traditional crops (video).  http://media.theage.com.au/world/world-news/nuis-climate-change-story-2066284.html

7.    A correction to sea surface temperatures by Britain’s Met Office shows that warming was greater than believed in the past decade, which was the hotter than the 1990s; 2010 will be at least close to a record year for heat.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/26/global-warming-met-office