2008 January: Climate
Anchor: Base Index
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Topics: Aquatic causes data
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marine mitigation modelling
national suppression transport
vertebrates water weather
See also The Guardian's archive
and current collections,
and New Scientist's special report, which is continually updated.
Jo Chandler, Scientists not lichen what they find beneath ice, The Age, 2008 Jan. 22 (January is peak season for Antarctic science, the milder conditions allowing researchers to get to where they need to go on planes and in boats)
Jo Chandler, Antarctic melt may outstrip prediction, The Age, 2008 Jan. 21 (the language of ice in Antarctica gains clarity at about 500 feet up; it's from here, glimpsed through the just-open tailgate of a low-flying aircraft, that the nuance of its vocabulary, baffling in the scientific reports, may be heard)
Jo Chandler, 'A place from which to take the measure of the planet', The Age, 2008 Jan. 19 (scientists drill into the ice to extract the weather from the past)
Andrew C Revkin, A scramble to understand Greenland's melting ice sheets, IHT, 2008 Jan. 7 (most important, many glaciologists say, is the breakup of huge semi-submerged clots of ice where some large Greenland glaciers, particularly along the west coast, squeeze through fjords as they meet the warming ocean)
Chris Berg, Isn't all this talk of an apocalypse getting a bit boring?, The Age, 2008 Jan. 27 (after 40 years, it's clear that the doomsayers are simply pessimists)
Adam Morton, Stern report attacked for 'advocacy', The Age, 2008 Jan. 25 (landmark Stern review into climate change is challenged by a Productivity Commission paper that argues it is "as much an exercise in advocacy as an economic analysis")
John Gray, Comment: Only science can save us from climate catastrophe, Observer, 2008 Jan. 20 (with an increasing population, the earnest debate over the merit of biofuels and wind farms misses the point - it is the technologies we fear that will be our salvation)
Climate 'could devastate crops', BBC, 2007 Jan. 31 (climate change could cause severe crop losses in South Asia and southern Africa over the next twenty years, a study in the journal Science says)
The food industry: Son of Frankenfood?, Economist, 2008 Jan. 19 (produce from cloned animals has won regulatory approval; now companies must persuade consumers to buy it)
Daniella Miletic, Drought, population and biofuels threaten food supplies, The Age, 2008 Jan. 18 (humanity is eating more food than it is producing)
Tim Dowling, Should we be eating insects?, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 17 (insects are arthropods, like lobster, crab and shrimp; they are plentiful, and account for over half of the known species on the planet; we spend billions of pounds trying to control or eradicate them, when we could just be eating them; so why don't we?)
Michael Pollan, How to get back to real food, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 8 (in the second and final extract from his new book, Pollan says we need to rediscover the simple rules for healthy eating; here, he gives his recipe for reclaiming control over our disastrous diets)
Michael Pollan, Consuming passion, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 7 (there was a time when knowing what to eat was easy; but over the past 40 years the food industry and nutritionists have interfered with our diet; the result is confusion - and an epidemic of food-related diseases; in the first of two extracts from his new book, Pollan says we should junk the science—and rediscover the joy of eating)
Ian Sample, Warmer Atlantic fuels hurricanes, UK study finds, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 31 (warmer waters in Atlantic have made hurricanes stronger and more frequent in the past decade)
Climate 'clearly out of balance', BBC, 2007 Jan. 24 (the Earth's climate is "clearly out of balance and is warming", the world's largest society of Earth and space scientists has said in a statement)
Peter Christoff, The end of the world as we know it, The Age, 2008 Jan. 15 (in a hundred years, the planet will be unrecognisable)
Helen Pidd, Prediction of -17C freeze cuts no ice with Met Office, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 2 (the Met Office dismisses rival forecaster's reports that the temperature would drop to -17C later this week)
Tom Phillips, Amazon's rescue reversed, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 25 (space imaging gives the lie to Brazil's recent 'great achievement' of halting rainforest destruction)
Brazil vows to stem Amazon loss, BBC, 2007 Jan. 24 (Brazil has agreed emergency measures to stem deforestation as government figures revealed a sharp increase in the rate of clearances in the Amazon)
Martin Wright, Flying clouds the real climate culprit, BBC, 2007 Jan. 22 (environmentalists are quick to blame the aviation industry, but they should focus their efforts on stopping deforestation)
James Randerson, Trees absorbing less CO2 as world warms, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 3 (shorter winters weaken forest 'carbon sinks'; data analysis reverses scientists' expectations)
Liza Kappelle and Garrett Mundy, Inferno kills three on 'safe' road, The Age, 2008 Jan. 1 (three men die and another is injured when an inferno engulfs their truck convoy in the West Australian Goldfields)
Juliette Jowit, Biofuels 'do more harm than good', Observer, 2008 Jan. 20 (controversial plans to make cars greener by using fuel made from crops and animal fat will be thrown into doubt this week when MPs are expected to question whether they will do more harm than good)
Tim Webb, Fury as fuel poverty soars close to a 10-year record, Observer, 2008 Jan. 20 (one in six British households is living in fuel poverty, the highest for almost a decade, according to new figures that threaten the government's target to eradicate the problem in England by the end of the decade)
Biofuels: Sugar in the tank, Economist, 2008 Jan. 19 (worries over biofuels could work to Britain's advantage)
David Adam and Alok Jha, EU reviews biofuel target as environmental doubts grow, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 15 (European drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under review after concerns about environmental impact)
Paul Kelbie, Islanders feel the power of green energy, Observer, 2008 Jan. 13 (Hebridean outpost ditches diesel and embraces renewables)
Robert Booth, Energy islands could use power of tropics, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 8 (architect of Cameron's green makeover launches ambitious new plan)
Asher Moses, Fuel saver no snake oil, The Age, 2008 Jan. 7 (in proof of concept testing, the California Environmental Engineering laboratory said its results verified with a high level of confidence the viability of Fuel Saver and indicated more dramatic improvements could be expected and achieved with time)
Nick Mathiason and Jo Revill, Every UK home to face 15pc energy price rise, Observer, 2008 Jan. 6 (a massive increase in gas and electricity bills for all of Britain's 24 million homes is to be announced by all the major energy companies in the next few weeks)
Leader, Oil price: Crude lessons from the $100 barrel, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 4 (throughout the decade-long rise in oil prices there has been a lot of what analysts call "noise": factors which have less to do with supply and demand and more to do with rumour and anxiety)
Larry Elliott, Oil price hits $100 a barrel for the first time, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 3 (the sharp increase in the price of crude on futures markets pushed it above the previous record of $99.21 a barrel reached in November and to within sight of its inflation-adjusted peak of $101.70 hit at the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980)
Warren Bull, Alaska oil exploration to begin, BBC, 2007 Jan. 3 (the US offers rights for oil and gas in an area of north-western Alaska renowned for its wildlife)
John Pilger, Comment: Our model dictator, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 28 (the death of Suharto is a reminder of the west's ignoble role in propping up a murderous regime)
Leader, World water shortage: 21st-century oil, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 28 (the Swiss Alps have been gleaming whitely outside the windows of the World Economic Forum, where there have been seven different sessions on water scarcity, part of the summit's ambition of 'catalysing a new global collaboration')
John Vidal, Green advisers dismiss nuclear plans as 'megafix' solution, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 16 (two of the UK's chief green advisers say the national fight against climate change will be hindered by the decision to encourage nuclear power)
Paul Krugman, It's all about the Chinese economy . . ., The Age, 2008 Jan. 5 (oil prices, wages and climate change all centre on Chinese growth)
California sues US over emissions, BBC, 2007 Jan. 3 (California is suing the US federal government, in an attempt to force car makers to conform to tougher cuts in greenhouse gas emissions)
Tim Dowling, Should we be eating insects?, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 17 (insects are arthropods, like lobster, crab and shrimp; they are plentiful, and account for over half of the known species on the planet; we spend billions of pounds trying to control or eradicate them, when we could just be eating them; so why don't we?)
Chee Chee Leung, Coral destruction by starfish spreads, The Age, 2008 Jan. 17 (a coral killer that has wreaked havoc along the Great Barrier Reef is threatening part of the "coral triangle" - the world's richest centre of coral reef biodiversity)
James Randerson, Human activity blamed for decline of coral reefs, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 9 (Caribbean coral reefs have suffered significant damage from over-fishing and run-off from land, says study)
Alok Jha, Hurricanes and global warming devastate Caribbean coral reefs, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 24 (storm damage from waves and death of vital algae likely to become more common, report warns)
Chee Chee Leung, Pollution rearranging ocean currents, The Age, 2008 Jan. 22 (scientists find that rising levels of man-made pollution - mostly in the northern hemisphere - affect worldwide ocean circulation)
Warning on rising Med Sea levels, BBC, 2007 Jan. 19 (the level of the Mediterranean Sea is rising rapidly and could increase by up to half a metre in the next 50 years, scientists in Spain have warned)
Chee Chee Leung, Coral destruction by starfish spreads, The Age, 2008 Jan. 17 (a coral killer that has wreaked havoc along the Great Barrier Reef is threatening part of the "coral triangle" - the world's richest centre of coral reef biodiversity)
Euro MPs back patio heaters ban, BBC, 2007 Jan. 31 (the European Parliament backs a call for a ban on outdoor heaters as a measure against climate change)
John Vidal, Peat bogs pelted with heather to slow CO2 emissions, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 31 (bales of heather fell from the sky onto a peat plateau in the Peak District, in attempt to halt carbon dioxide)
Steve Rose, We'd like 250,000 of these, please, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 21 (floating mosques, amphibious cinemas, houses that rise with the water ... as floods return to Britain, Rose meets some Dutch architects who may have the answers)
John Gray, Comment: Only science can save us from climate catastrophe, Observer, 2008 Jan. 20 (with an increasing population, the earnest debate over the merit of biofuels and wind farms misses the point - it is the technologies we fear that will be our salvation)
James Randerson, Up for grabs, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 2 (environmentalists want an end to coal-fired power stations but that looks unlikely to happen any time soon; is capturing and storing their emissions a realistic answer to climate change?)
Robin McKie, Ocean floor sensors will warn of failing Gulf Stream, Observer, 2008 Jan. 20 (an armada of robot submarines and marine sensors are to be deployed across the Atlantic to provide early warning that the Gulf Stream might be failing, an event that would trigger cataclysmic freezing in Britain for decades)
Jo Chandler, 'A place from which to take the measure of the planet', The Age, 2008 Jan. 19 (scientists drill into the ice to extract the weather from the past)
Andrew C Revkin, A scramble to understand Greenland's melting ice sheets, IHT, 2008 Jan. 7 (most important, many glaciologists say, is the breakup of huge semi-submerged clots of ice where some large Greenland glaciers, particularly along the west coast, squeeze through fjords as they meet the warming ocean)
James Randerson, Trees absorbing less CO2 as world warms, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 3 (shorter winters weaken forest 'carbon sinks'; data analysis reverses scientists' expectations)
Adam Morton, Balloons to satellites: climate now right for weather report, The Age, 2008 Jan. 2 (three weeks after the long promised but seriously underfunded national Bureau of Meteorology opened on January 1, 1908, Commonwealth meteorologist Henry Hunt was being blamed)
Katharine Murphy, Flannery's plan: buy forests to help environment, The Age, 2008 Jan. 30 (Australians could buy a stake in the protection of endangered tropical forests under a scheme being devised by former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery)zz
Andra Jackson, Queensland hails return to 'wet seasons of old', The Age, 2008 Jan. 21 (heavy rains that deluged parts of Queensland and saturated much of Victoria over the weekend have been welcomed by drought-stricken farmers and water authorities)
Adam Morton, A long, hot, dry stretch in the south of the great southern land, The Age, 2008 Jan. 4 (in the tropical north, temperatures were in line with long-term averages, but records for heat were set across south-eastern states: in Victoria, NSW and South Australia)
Ian Sample, Drive to save weird and endangered amphibians, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 21 (British scientists launch ambitious conservation project to protect weirdest creatures on the planet from extinction)
Matthew Burgess and David Rood, Anglers report 'sick' fish as Premier denies risk, The Age, 2008 Jan. 19 (on Thursday, the Environment Protection Authority said it was investigating reports of seven species—cobbler, blowfish, flathead, trevally, luderick, whiting and bream—caught with lesions on them in Hobsons Bay and Port Phillip Bay)
Rebecca Smithers, Food and drink firms promise to cut water use by industry, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 29 (leading companies have joined forces to help the environment by cutting back their use of water)
Denise Gadd, No relief from restrictions for dying gardens, The Age, 2008 Jan. 29 (
Andra Jackson, Queensland hails return to 'wet seasons of old', The Age, 2008 Jan. 21 (heavy rains that deluged parts of Queensland and saturated much of Victoria over the weekend have been welcomed by drought-stricken farmers and water authorities)
Amelia Gentleman, Coca-Cola asked to shut Indian plant to save water, IHT, 2008 Jan. 15 (a recommendation for the corporation to review its consumption of water at the site in the drought-stricken state of Rajasthan is the latest in a series of controversies that have dogged the company's operations in India over the past decade)
Jonathan Watts, Dry, polluted, plagued by rats: the crisis in China's greatest river, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 17 (ships stranded as China's greatest river reaches 142-year low)
Steve Friess, A rush of water leaves a U.S. town in anguish, IHT, 2008 Jan. 7 (storm systems battered the West Coast over the weekend and were blamed for at least three deaths)
Peter Ker, Melbourne water use down 16%, The Age, 2008 Jan. 7 (consumption of water in Melbourne fell significantly last year, prompting the Brumby Government to say its water restrictions have worked)
Jason Dowling, Business paying too little for water, City West says, The Age, 2008 Jan. 6 (Melbourne households are paying too much for water compared with businesses; and householders in some suburbs are paying far more than people in neighbouring areas)
Ben Blanchard, Storms bring China to a standstill, The Age, 2008 Jan. 31 (almost 500,000 troops have fanned out across China to help millions of people cut off by fierce snow storms, which have killed about 50 people)
Tania Branigan, 24 die in worst Chinese blizzards for 50 years, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 29 (blizzards strand hundreds of thousands in China as forecasters warn of further severe snowstorms)
Stuart Jeffries, Global warming plants the seeds of change for gardeners, Guardian, 2008 Jan. 22 (have seed companies updated their guidelines since the acceleration of global warming?)
AP, Storm hits Californian canyons, The Age, 2008 Jan. 6 (a fierce arctic storm has pounded California, threatening to soak mudslide-prone canyons already charred by fires and paralyse the mountains with deep snow)
Heath Gilmore and Lisa Carty, As Victoria bakes, NSW floods given 'disaster' status, The Age, 2008 Jan. 6 (the flood-ravaged far north coast of NSW is declared a natural disaster zone as water threatens homes, forces evacuations and ruins holidays for thousands of tourists)
Ben Schneiders, City turns up the heat for new year, The Age, 2008 Jan. 2 (Melbourne records its hottest New Year's Day on record, hitting 41.2 degrees)
Ben Schneiders, Year's hot finale bakes the state, The Age, 2008 Jan. 1 (the hottest year on record in Victoria ends with the hottest day for 2007 as temperatures in many parts of the state soar above 40)