Planetary fever update:

Temperatures in China have plunged to their lowest in almost three decades, cold enough to freeze coastal waters and trap 1,000 ships in ice, official media said at the weekend.

He’s living large on oil money now, dear. RT @katrinanation: Al-Jazeera buys Current TV. What’s that mean for Al Gore?

— RB (@RBPundit) January 3, 2013

More: “Mr. Gore and his partners were eager to complete the deal by Dec. 31, lest it be subject to higher tax rates that took effect on Jan. 1.”
Related: #CurrentAlJazeeraShowPitches

Guardian;

An ambitious plan by a team of British scientists at the Antarctic to look for life in a lake buried under almost two miles of ice was abandoned this week, after a decade of preparation and almost a month of drilling.

h/t Maz2

Russia is enduring its harshest winter in over 70 years, with temperatures plunging as low as -50 degrees Celsius. Dozens of people have already died, and almost 150 have been hospitalized.
­The country has not witnessed such a long cold spell since 1938, meteorologists said, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees lower than the seasonal norm all over Russia.
Across the country, 45 people have died due to the cold, and 266 have been taken to hospitals. In total, 542 people were injured due to the freezing temperatures, RIA Novosti reported.

Mother of Invention: elephant antifreeze
h/t PeterJ

SDA gets results!

Canada has officially withdrawn from the Kyoto climate agreement.
The death notice comes years after the Stephen Harper government made clear it rejected the terms that were negotiated by the Jean Chretien government in 1997.
According to the agreement, Canada would reduce its greenhouse gases 6% below 1990 levels by 2012.
Environment Minister Peter Kent pointed to the fact the United States and China – the two largest carbon emitters – never signed on as reason to abandon the agreement. And one year ago Canada officially announced its repudiation of it, becoming the first country in the world to do so.

More than two dozen sea turtles stressed by cold ocean waters have been airlifted from New England to recover in balmy Florida.