Still muzzling the climate scientists: The Bush Administration long ago secured a special place in history for the way in which it distorts, manipulates, or censors science for political ends. But now the habit — and it does seem to be a habitual failing — has come to haunt President Bush himself. As everyone knows, Mr. Bush has never taken the issue of climate change nearly as seriously as it should be taken. Right off the bat, almost, he reneged on a campaign promise to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, and then he rejected the Kyoto agreement on climate change without consulting his allies. New York Times

Business of green: tourism and global warming: It is often said that farmers are on the front lines dealing with global warming, their livelihoods being extraordinarily dependent on the weather. But tour operators and resort owners are not far behind. Imagine a ski resort whose chairlifts are in the lower reaches of mountains, without decent snow. Or a scuba club whose reefs succumbed to warmer and stormier seas. Or a golfing hotel in a district where water shortages made it impossible to keep fairways green. All are real possibilities, industry experts say, and in fact, early effects are already being felt. International Herald Tribune

Third phase of EU carbon trading to go through 2020: The third phase of the European Union’s emissions trading scheme will run from 2013 to 2020, an official said on Tuesday, as EU ministers prepared for a crucial round of international climate change talks. The European Commission is working on a revision of the EU emissions trading system, including the possibility of adding gases and sectors that are not currently included. Reuters

Melting glacier reveals ancient tree stumps: Melting glaciers in Western Canada are revealing tree stumps up to 7000 years old where the region’s rivers of ice have retreated to a historic minimum, a geologist said today. Johannes Koch of The College of Wooster in Ohio found the fresh-looking, intact tree stumps beside retreating glaciers in Garibaldi Provincial Park, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of Vancouver, British Columbia. Radiocarbon dating of the wood from the stumps revealed the wood was far from fresh — some of it dated back to within a few thousand years of the end of the last ice age. LiveScience

Rudd’s targets cool climate fallout: Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has set an ambitious renewable energy target of 20 per cent by 2020 in a bid to hose down damaging fallout over Labor’s backflip on a climate change agreement. Despite the British Government last week signalling it would wind back its 20 per cent by 2020 target because it was too expensive and impractical, Mr Rudd said the target brought Australia into line with most developed nations. The announcement came after Prime Minister John Howard mounted a ferocious attack over Labor’s U-turn on a post-Kyoto agreement, claiming Coalition and Labor policies on climate change were now effectively identical. The Age