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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>John Kerry will bring a long history of climate activism to the Department of State.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-kerry-expected-to-elevate-climate-change-as-secretary-of-state-20121224,0,6445247.story?track=rss"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-kerry-expected-to-elevate-climate-change-as-secretary-of-state-20121224,0,6445247.story?track=rss</font></a>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The Jacksonville <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Times-Union</i> ran coverage of a local sea level rise study on the front page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-12-26/story/planners-wary-coastal-sea-rise-st-augustine-area"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-12-26/story/planners-wary-coastal-sea-rise-st-augustine-area</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>They did not mention that the 3-7 inch projection is for 2030, and provide no critique of the 9-24 inch projection for the century, but I consider that the story is a move forward for our area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>It is more important to begin assessing vulnerability and to plan for a range of rises than to arrive at a trustworthy schedule at this point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>We should begin to see more firmly grounded projections shortly as the Ice2sea project releases its findings, and other groups use recent work on the polar ice sheets.<o:p></o:p></font></font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>James Hansen and Makiko Sato observe that the Greenland melt is consistent with a nonlinear melt rate, but does not yet yield a clear picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>I recommend the Trial of the Century, linked at the bottom of the first page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>It is Hansen’s satirical account of the climate wars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The main article is of course the more significant piece: “Update of Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Loss: Exponential?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The usual assumptions about sea level rise are based on a linear melt rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The time for action (sometime this decade) will probably have passed before we learn if that is more likely a nonlinear disintegration rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2012/20121226_GreenlandIceSheetUpdate.pdf"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2012/20121226_GreenlandIceSheetUpdate.pdf</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The cost of a solar panel in 2011 was about $1.80.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>German installers added $1.20 to that cost, and US installers, $4.36.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>We should be able to emulate Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>
</font></font><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509196/why-solar-installations-cost-more-in-the-us-than-in-germany/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-energy&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20121231"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509196/why-solar-installations-cost-more-in-the-us-than-in-germany/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-energy&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20121231</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>George Monbiot sees 2012 as the pit, a year when we turned our back on the natural world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>In my plot theory the infernal vision marks the turn to a final resolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>I nominate 2013 as the turn to the time when we decide to make ourselves at home in the world as it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/31/year-abandon-natural-world"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/31/year-abandon-natural-world</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>When the turn to the final binding comes, it seems to come from the outside, or from deep within.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>That amounts to the same thing, in the wisdom of plot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>In Salon, Alyssa Battistoni meditates on the uses of disaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/will_2013_be_the_year_we_finally_address_climate_change/"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/will_2013_be_the_year_we_finally_address_climate_change/</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">Correction: On the last news list I misrepresented the name of Patrick Parenteau, Professor of Law at Vermont Law School.<o:p></o:p></font></font></p>
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