Pricey oil, more carbon: Referring to high oil prices, the billionaire airline magnate Richard Branson recently declared, “Thank God it’s happened … A high oil price is what we needed to actually wake up the world” to the reality of climate change. (This from a man who openly pines for a techno fix that will allow us to burn through all the fossil fuel we want, and enjoy our climate, too.) David and others have made the point before, but it bears repeating: High oil prices do not by any stretch translate to lower carbon emissions. — Grist

Oil lures big powers to the Arctic: Lying barely 650 miles from the North Pole and shrouded in freezing darkness for several months of the year, the Norwegian islands of Svalbard make an unlikely property hotspot. Yet at Ny-Alesund, a tiny former coal-mining settlement on the west side, an international boom is under way. — The Guardian

Court rebukes Bush on global warming: A federal court today issued a harsh rebuke of the Bush administration for its failure to issue long-delayed reports assessing the impacts and consequences of global warming in the United States. — ABC News

Climate change threatens Oz food bowl: A new study has found that climate change is the biggest threat to northern Australia and to the Federal Government’s plans to turn the region into the nation’s new food bowl. The study says overstocking and saltwater intrusion caused by rising sea levels will slow agricultural development in the north. — Lateline