European Unemployment Unchanged in December

Current Drought in Mexico

December Global Trade

Historical Note on Drought in Climate Models

Another Terrifying Drought Paper

European Industrial Orders Continue Slide

The Significance of the Al-Naimi Price Comment

Recently, Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi made some interesting comments to CNN about Saudi spare capacity:

I believe we can easily get up to 11.4, 11.8 (million barrels a day) almost immediately, in a few days, because all we need is to turn valves," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told CNN's John Defterios. "Now to get to the next 700 or so, we probably need about 90 days."

When asked about whether Saudi Arabia could make up for Iran's exports of 2.2 million barrels a day, al-Naimi said the country has a spare capacity "to respond to emergencies worldwide, to respond to our customer demand, and that is really the focus. Our focus is not on who drops out from production, but who wants more."

and oil prices:

"Our wish and hope is we can stabilize this oil price and keep it at a level around $100" for the average barrel of crude, al-Naimi said.

Chinese Property Prices

OPEC: Oil Production Still Rising

European Industrial Production

Regional Misery Distribution

Oil Prices

Current European Drought Map

Prime Age Men Crawling Back to Work

Current US Drought Map

Eurozone Retail Trade Falls Below 2009 Trough

Some relief on Eurozone Industrial Orders

Modern Cities are Hard to Kill

I have a hard time believing that a city in an ancient civilization would have coped anything like that well with a similar disaster (think Angkor for example).  This is quick bit of lunchtime research inspired by this Open Mind post - New Orleans seems like a prototype for worst case scenarios for cities that experience failures in their response to 21st century sea level rise.

I stress I'm not trying to minimize the enormous suffering of the people of New Orleans - just pointing out that the city is still there and has a functioning economy that is only slightly smaller than before the disaster.  New Orleans is clearly not going to end up as ruins in the bayou as a result of Katrina.

The data are from the BEA.  

Lots More Killer Summers on the Way

Hansen Still Argues 5m 21st C Sea Level Rise Possible

Amazon Wish List

Every so often someone contacts me wishing to donate money to the cause of this blog and desiring me to add a tip jar to facilitate that.  On the whole I'd just as soon keep the blog non-commercial since my day job amply covers my family's needs.  However, there are times when I want to buy books but am restrained by the desire to keep the book budget from reaching astronomical proportions.  It occurs to me that this is a way that readers could contribute to the blog and so I've created an Amazon wish list out of the (several years of) deferred items in my cart there.

So if you are one of those people so moved, check it out: there are items ranging from a few bucks into the hundreds for various academic tomes on climate and an astounding $2300 for a used copy of "Sedimentary Basins and Petroleum Geology of the Middle East" (which I would love to have should any of my billionaire readers be so moved).  So there are opportunities to give at any plausible expenditure level. There's also a button over in the right hand sidebar of the blog for long term access to the list.

European Manufacturing Still Contracting?

Interesting Figure

More Paleoclimate Vegetation Maps