2008 July: Climate
Anchor: Base Index
Other months: June August
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Topics: Aquatic causes data
denial energy environment
fires food forecasts
forests fuel ice
international invertebrates
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.
AP, Break-up after 3000 years, The Age, 2008 July 31 (a chunk of ice about 18 square kilometres in size broke off Canada's largest remaining ice shelf last week, a researcher says)
Canadian Arctic sheds ice chunk, BBC, 2008 July 30 (a large chunk of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf has broken free of the northern Canadian coast, scientists say)
Robin McKie, Actions speak louder than a lot of government hot air, Observer, 2008 July 27 (melt our ice-caps and you release forces you cannot control)
David Adam, Melting ice threatens Arctic foxes, Guardian, 2008 July 15 (scientists say ice can help foxes survive because of fewer predators and ease of finding food)
Andrew Darby, Scientists surprised by midwinter collapse of massive ice shelf, The Age, 2008 July 12 (even the depths of winter are proving unable to halt the climate change-induced collapse of an Antarctic ice shelf)
Tim Colebatch, Short-term view reveals the error of warm-earth deniers, The Age, 2008 July 25 (the Liberal Party turns into a battleground between those who believe Australia should do its share to tackle global warming and those who deny that global warming exists)
Kenneth Davidson, Sceptics should face the need to manage risk, The Age, 2008 July 24 (catastrophe threatens if we pass the tipping point on global warming)
Dave Rado, A reluctant whistle-blower, BBC, 2008 July 21 (why I challenged Channel 4's climate documentary)
Owen Gibson, Global warming swindle film 'unfair' but not misleading, The Age, 2008 July 18 (Britain's Channel 4 misrepresented some of the world's leading climate scientists in a controversial documentary that claimed global warming was a conspiracy and a fraud, Britain's media regulator is set to find)
William Kininmonth, What's the point of a cure if the patient may not be sick?, The Age, 2008 July 18 (the only evidence against fossil fuels is from computer models)
Richard Simon and Andrew Revkin, Cheney accused on climate change, The Age, 2008 July 10 (a former government official has claimed US Vice-President Dick Cheney's office tried to alter sworn congressional testimony in order to play down the threat of global warming)
William Kininmonth, Why so much climate change talk is hot air, The Age, 2008 July 8 (faulty computer modelling has led to a false view on carbon dioxide)
Tahmima Anam, I've seen the effects of climate change—and if people won't face up to it, governments must make them, Guardian, 2008 July 3 (climate change is happening; we, and the generations before us, have caused it; it should not matter whether we believe it or not)
Rory Carroll, Haiti: Mud cakes become staple diet as cost of food soars beyond a family's reach, Guardian, 2008 July 29 (with little cash and import prices rocketing half the population faces starvation)
Eli Greenblat, Consumers to bear costs as rice rises more than thrice in price, The Age, 2008 July 28 (a consortium of private Victorian companies has launched an innovative program to grow long-term eucalypt plantations on private property)
Dewi Cooke, Crop failure shows scale of food crisis, The Age, 2008 July 7 (as the food crisis hitting the world's poor forces food security onto the G8 agenda, in Ethiopia it has taken its toll on their most common source of nutrition)
Christopher Swann, Rising cost of food to hit poor, The Age, 2008 July 3 (the International Monetary Fund warns poor countries that food prices are likely to remain high)
Xan Rice, Abu Dhabi develops food farms in Sudan, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (Abu Dhabi to develop nearly 30,000 hectares of farmland in Sudan in first step towards ensuring food security in the emirate)
Graciela Chichilnisky, Innovative preventive measures are needed, The Age, 2008 July 31 (it is like insuring a house against fire; we are not sure it will happen, but it is prudent to insure against such a loss)
Mark Dummett, Bangladesh landmass 'is growing', BBC, 2008 July 30 (Bangladesh may not be as vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by climate change as previously feared)
Ed Pilkington, Eaten up, Guardian, 2008 July 29 (Pilkington talks to the soothsayer of agro-economics, Raj Patel, about what will happen when the food finally runs out)
Mark Sutton, Snared in a homemade 'NitroNet', BBC, 2008 July 8 (humans are using too much and nature is suffering)
Carla Lipsig-Mumme, Face facts: how we live and work will change in a warmer world, The Age, 2008 July 7 (Garnaut and Rudd have ignored how green policies will affect jobs)
Chris Hammer, Victoria after 2010: heatwaves in 3 out of 4 years, The Age, 2008 July 7 (Victoria could soon be hit by heatwaves in three out of every four years, as Australia becomes hotter, drier and increasingly drought ravaged)
Tim Colebatch, All spin aside, here's the inconvenient truth, The Age, 2008 July 5 (Ross Garnaut's draft report on climate change has six key messages)
Chris Hammer, Act now or face disaster, Garnaut report warns, The Age, 2008 July 5 (petrol should be included in Australia's carbon emissions trading scheme, but low-income households should be compensated for higher power and fuel bills, nation's top climate change expert warns)
Ian Sample, Climate risk from flat-screen TVs, Guardian, 2008 July 3 (flat-screen televisions could have a greater impact on global warming than the largest coal-fired power stations, a leading environmental scientist has warned)
Forest fires rage through Greek island, The Age, 2008 July 27 (more than 2000 tourists have been evacuated from hotels on the Greek island of Rhodes as forest fires raged for a fourth day)
David Adam, Forest funding 'could put billions in wrong hands', Guardian, 2008 July 14 (Rights and Resources Initiative say not enough is being done to address land rights in tropical countries)
Canada's forests: Beetle attack, Economist, 2008 July 5 (it is an unprecedented infestation that could become a catastrophe)
Andrew Darby, $2bn finance on track, says Gunns, The Age, 2008 July 4 (more than six months after Gunns Ltd claimed to have finance locked in for its controversial Tamar Valley pulp mill, company still canvassing options for project)
David Williams, Time to encourage biomass growth, BBC, 2008 July 30 (why it is time to get serious about large-scale biomass)
Tim Webb, Fuel poverty crisis worsens, Observer, 2008 July 27 (an estimated 500,000 households will be plunged into 'extreme fuel poverty' due to utility bill hikes)
Terry Macalister, Biofuels producers hit back at Opec over oil price, Guardian, 2008 July 17 (ferocious attack on cartel accusing it of deliberately 'misleading' public on causes of fuel cost rises)
Global energy needs 'to grow 50%', BBC, 2008 July 10 (world demand for oil will grow by 50% between now and 2030 as people in developing countries drive more cars, oil producers' group Opec says)
Nick Mathiason, Brown to hold Nigerian oil summit, Observer, 2008 July 6 (oil production collapses in Nigeria amid escalating violence against Western oil interests and workers)
The oil price: Don't blame the speculators, Economist, 2008 July 5 (politicians who try to make oil cheaper by restraining speculation will just make things worse)
Grant Smith, Energy agency tips ebb in oil demand, The Age, 2008 July 3 (the International Energy Agency cuts more than 3 million barrels a day from its 2012 global demand forecast)
Clay Lucas, Petrol thefts spark station security call, The Age, 2008 July 3 (petrol siphoning from cars parked at suburban train stations has prompted the state's biggest council to demand the State Government install security cameras)
Polly Ghazi, Gas guzzlers and 'ghostburbs', Guardian, 2008 July 2 (high oil prices are having a dramatic effect in the US, with public transport riding high and SUV production falling; now, energy policy has moved to centre-stage in the coming presidential election)
Terry Macalister, Clean tech: Green energy is the modern gold rush, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (alternative power investors are falling over themselves to put cash into the search for cleaner fuels)
'Green' energy spending on rise, BBC, 2008 July 1 (investment in 'green' energy surged in 2007 and early 2008 despite financial market woe, a report says)
Watchdog cuts oil supply forecast, BBC, 2008 July 1 (world oil supplies will grow more slowly than previously thought over the next five years, warns the International Energy Agency)
Warming world 'drying wetlands', BBC, 2008 July 22 (more than 700 scientists meet in Brazil to draw up an action plan to protect the world's wetlands)
Katharine Murphy, China, India snub world on targets, The Age, 2008 July 10 (China, India and other major developing nations have rejected a push by the world's richest countries for them to commit to firm targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions)
Ashley Seager, 260m driven into hunger by push for biofuel, Guardian, 2008 July 3 (the G8's push for greater biofuel use has been a significant factor in driving 760 million people into food insecurity and putting them at risk of hunger in the past two years, ActionAid says today)
Matt Wade, India puts heat on developed nations, The Age, 2008 July 2 (when Mahatma Gandhi said the "earth provides enough to satisfy everyone's need, but not everyone's greed", little did he know his words would one day be applied to the politics of greenhouse gas emissions)
George Monbiot, This economic panic is pushing the planet right back down the agenda, Guardian, 2008 July 1 (oil-dependent countries are focused on growth at all costs, and the pale green political consensus looks unlikely to hold)
Fall in tiny animals a 'disaster', BBC, 2008 July 10 (experts on invertebrates fear the worst for food chains after figures show a decline in zooplankton)
Richard Black, 'Alarming' plight of coral reefs?, BBC, 2008 July 10 (a third of the world's reef-building coral species are facing extinction, the first global assessment shows)
Fall in tiny animals a 'disaster', BBC, 2008 July 10 (experts on invertebrates fear the worst for food chains after figures show a decline in zooplankton)
Steven Morris, Trawler fishing blamed for dolphin deaths, Guardian, 2008 July 7 (study finds majority of strandings due to industrial fishing but climate change could also be factor)
Chris Bowlby, A quick fix for global warming, BBC, 2008 July 31 (it's the stuff of science fiction, but could mirrors in space or sea water sprayed in the air be shortcuts to halt global warming?)
Cathy Alexander, Beware before plugging into the sun, The Age, 2008 July 28 (households that want to go green might find that installing solar panels on their roof is not the smartest way to go about it)
Allegra Stratton, Whitehall to become carbon neutral with aid of smart PCs, Guardian, 2008 July 17 (government plans to become first in the world to offset all of its computers' usage)
David King, Big business shows politicians how the planet can be saved, Observer, 2008 July 13 (as governments haver over the best ways to tackle global warming, private enterprise is forging ahead—and making money)
Matt McGrath, Solar dyes give a guiding light, BBC, 2008 July 11 (a new way of capturing the energy from the Sun could increase the power generated by solar panels tenfold, a team of American scientists has shown)
Katharine Murphy, Compensation greatest for low-income earners, The Age, 2008 July 5 (low-income households would get lion's share of compensation for higher energy and petrol costs under emissions trading scheme proposed by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's climate adviser)
John Thwaites and Tony Nicholson, Let us hang clothes on our balconies, The Age, 2008 July 3 (we have the means to help low-income earners combat climate change)
Peter Christoff, Building our own asteroid, The Age, 2008 July 2 (the Earth is headed for destruction unless we make deep cuts to emissions)
Laying waste to yesterday's widgets, The Age, 2008 July 1 (the greenies have invaded the computer room; no longer seen as hysterical hippie propaganda, green thinking is becoming increasingly the norm in organisations)
Adam Morton, Charge on bags in bid to cut use, The Age, 2008 July 1 (shoppers will be charged 10 cents per plastic bag at 16 supermarkets in Fountain Gate, Wangaratta and Warrnambool next month under a trial designed to cut bag use)
William Kininmonth, Why so much climate change talk is hot air, The Age, 2008 July 8 (faulty computer modelling has led to a false view on carbon dioxide)
Tim Colebatch, No-show puts cloud over solar inquiry, The Age, 2008 July 26 (Federal Government has failed to show up at a Senate inquiry into the decision to means-test the $8000 household solar energy rebate)
Tim Colebatch, Short-term view reveals the error of warm-earth deniers, The Age, 2008 July 25 (the Liberal Party turns into a battleground between those who believe Australia should do its share to tackle global warming and those who deny that global warming exists)
Adam Morton and Michelle Grattan, Cut migration to cut gases, The Age, 2008 July 23 (a prominent social scientist has called on the Federal Government to slash its migration intake as the best path to meeting its goal of cutting its greenhouse emissions in half by mid-century)
Tim Colebatch, High-emitters set to reap benefit, The Age, 2008 July 18 (new high-emission businesses such as black coal mines, aluminium smelters and cement plants will be given free emission permits under the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme, raising fears that Australia's emissions will continue to rise)
Urs Walterlin, Australia, the environmental vandal, is how the world sees us, The Age, 2008 July 16 (cuddly koalas do not hide our record pollution and resource wasting)
Tim Colebatch, Alarm on carbon trading scheme, The Age, 2008 July 15 (one of the world's best-known economists, Jeffrey Sachs, has warned Australia against using an emissions trading scheme to tackle climate change, saying it would never win global support)
Adam Morton, Australia falls behind on easiest greenhouse cuts, The Age, 2008 July 14 (Australia lags behind most rich nations in becoming more energy efficient at home, work and on the road)
Rowan Reid, Rewards, not rebates, will deliver environmental goods for the community, The Age, 2008 July 12 (the Federal Government has the mandate, now it needs to act)
Peter Ker, Private sector to rule on $1bn project, The Age, 2008 July 11 (it helped secure Victoria's support for the Murray-Darling Basin agreement, but the Federal Government's $1 billion commitment to an irrigation project in the state's north will now be decided by a private company)
Nick Renton, Proposed carbon tax fails to make the connection, The Age, 2008 July 9 (Ross Garnaut has recommended a politically useful but practically useless tax)
Ross Gittins, Political risk? Not really, The Age, 2008 July 9 (the Federal Government should not be spooked by ill-informed fears about emissions trading)
Josh Gordon, Can Wong avert carbon-fuelled train wreck?, The Age, 2008 July 6 (an untested politician has the Government's future in her hands)
A message drafted in red on climate change, The Age, 2008 July 6 (demonstrators gather in central Melbourne to demand that political leaders act urgently to combat climate change)
Michelle Grattan, 'One input' wields an unyielding message, The Age, 2008 July 5 (Ross Garnaut has delivered a very inconvenient truth about the emissions regime; he's told the politicians they'd be cheating to avoid the political pain)
Adam Morton, Environment lobby warms to report, The Age, 2008 July 5 (Professor Ross Garnaut's blueprint for Australia tackling climate change wins support from environmental lobby)
Mathew Murphy, BCA to pass buck on emissions, The Age, 2008 July 3 (a day before Ross Garnaut delivers his report into the economic impact of an emissions trading scheme, business issues a blunt warning)
Chris Hammer, Rudd locks in green power plan, The Age, 2008 July 3 (the Rudd Government sets Australia on course for a new era of greener but more expensive electricity)
Mathew Murphy, Garnaut report has Rudd cooling on warming, The Age, 2008 July 2 (the Government's climate change adviser's draft report into one of the biggest economic reforms in this country's history is expected to be brutal in its assessment of the policy directions needed to combat climate change)
Chris Hammer, Climate strategy 'already obsolete', The Age, 2008 July 2 (two days before Ross Garnaut releases his draft report on climate change, a leading Australian researcher says it will almost certainly be obsolete)
AP, Penguin deaths rise, The Age, 2008 July 18 (hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches)
David Adam, Melting ice threatens Arctic foxes, Guardian, 2008 July 15 (scientists say ice can help foxes survive because of fewer predators and ease of finding food)
Penelope Debelle, Tortoise deaths underscore Murray's ecological disaster, The Age, 2008 July 14 (agonising deaths of hundreds of long-necked tortoises from Murray mouth and Coorong lakes point to unfolding ecological disaster)
Brian Morton, Where the eagles still dare, there's a chance for us all, Observer, 2008 July 13 (birds like the osprey may have claimed the limelight, but the golden eagle remains the real measure of the nation's health)
Geoff Russell, Peter Singer and Barry Brook, The missing link in the Garnaut report, The Age, 2008 July 10 (the real climate change culprit is methane gas from cows and sheep)
Ian Sample, Some species could be wiped out 100 times faster than feared, Guardian, 2008 July 3 (ecologists say methods previously used to predict extinctions did not take into account gender proportion of species; most-endangered may be months from extinction)
Chee Chee Leung, All boys and no girls mean tuatara's future is a short one, The Age, 2008 July 3 (a three-eyed reptile whose ancestors used to scurry under the feet of dinosaurs could die out as global warming turns them all into males)
Darren Gray, Farmers dig in though drought saps confidence, The Age, 2008 July 30 (farmers in Victoria's parched north-west are vowing to fight on, despite a devastating drought from which many will take years to recover)
Penelope Debelle, Plea for NSW lakes water to flush 'dying' Murray mouth, The Age, 2008 July 28 (two of the four biggest lakes in the huge Menindee Lakes water storage system in NSW are full to the brim)
Adam Morton, Wong backs desal plant, The Age, 2008 July 22 (Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has backed desalination as a vital part of Australian cities' plans to tackle climate change)
Peter Ker, River towns brace for water crisis, The Age, 2008 July 22 (more than 50 Victorian towns would be affected if dire drinking-water predictions for the Murray Darling Basin prove accurate)
Melissa Fyfe, Breaking my heartland, The Age, 2008 July 13 (can the private sector do more for a river than a Premier's pipes and Penny's purse?)
Peter Ker and David Rood, Exemptions hide biggest water wallies, The Age, 2008 July 11 (twenty-seven of the biggest water and electricity users in Victoria have attempted to avoid signing up to the Victorian Government's registration program for major consumers)
Chris Hammer, Dire outlook for sick Murray as inflows drop, The Age, 2008 July 11 (if the Murray-Darling river system were a hospital patient, it would be on life support, its condition rated as critical, and it would be tending towards flatlining; that's the view of the person charged with managing the system, Dr Wendy Craik, head of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission)
Jan Phillips, Australian farmer: 'Our river is dying', BBC, 2008 July 10 (the long-running drought in Australia's main food-growing region, the Murray-Darling river basin, has worsened; Phillips describes how she and her husband had to give up their farm work because of the drought)
Peter Ker, Water authority tries to put a hex on evaporation, The Age, 2008 July 10 (what the clouds give, the heat of the sun takes away from Victoria's reservoirs)
Josh Gordon and Melissa Fyfe, Dried river basin sends warning, says PM, The Age, 2008 July 6 (the Government is pressing ahead with efforts to convince a financially stressed public that doing nothing on climate change is not a viable option)
Tony Wright, Expert flags death of a river in call to action, The Age, 2008 July 5 (a passionate entreaty that Australians realise that the Murray-Darling river system could disappear)
Lorna Edwards and Adam Morton, Snow heats up hopes for skiers, The Age, 2008 July 1 (Victoria's alpine resorts have received their first significant snowfalls of the winter, raising hopes for skiers and boarders after the state's warmest June in more than half a century)