Welcome to another installment of the Friday Linkfest, your guide to the good, the bad and the irrelevant in this week's enviro-news. Let's get it on, then:

Good News

• GM seeds can't be contained

  According to the International Monetary Fund, the widespread adoption of well designed policies can contain the economic costs of climate change damage. And guess what - biofuels are a perfect example... NOT! Whether what the IMF has to say is of value or not, you decide -- or check back with us tomorrow for a Celsias post on this.
• Seattle proposes a 20 cent grocery bag fee, effective as of January 1st if the city council approves this simple plan to discourage the use of disposable bags. Cheer!
• China begins construction of its largest wind farm in June. The 200 turbine farm will start providing the country with 300MW of electricity before the end of the year, helping to cut CO2 emissions by 750,000 tonnes and sulphur dioxide by 4,000 tonnes a year.
• IKEA plans to phase out disposable plastic bags in its US stores starting in October. Now if only they would just phase out disposable furniture...

Bad News:

• A study shows that the US West is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world and is likely to face more drought conditions in many of its fast-growing cities.
• Doctors predict that climate change will bring added health risks to the UK, such as malaria, infectious diseases and higher skin cancer rates.
• Some GM seeds have been found able to persist in the soil for at least 10 years, despite multiple efforts to eradicate them from the field, attesting the difficulty (or impossibility) of containing GMOs once they are released. I have two words and one of them is Pandora.
• Homeland Security shoves aside over 30 environmental laws and regulations to finish building its 670 mile long border fence to keep out them Mexicans, not to mention endangered Wild Cat species.

• Well, whad'ya know! There is no link between sun activity and climate change. Who knew? Oh wait, we did!
• UN climate talks open in Bangkok, marking the beginning of negotiations for a replacement for the Kyoto climate change pact. No decisions are to be expected.

• The role of indigenous people in coping with climate change.
• Celsias contributor Joe Brewer explains how conservatives duped us in the global warming fight.
• Plenty of ink is running over this article in the journal Nature, that questions the IPCC's technological assumptions for addressing climate change. Here's a summary of the discussion.