2008 September: Climate
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Ed Pilkington, The village at the tip of the iceberg, Observer, 2008 Sep. 28 (for more than 2,000 years the Yup'ik Eskimos have carved out a subsistence living on the frozen wastes of southwest Alaska; but now the ice is melting the village is having to move to a new site, and the world's first climate-change refugees face an uncertain future)
Marian Wilkinson, Arctic may be ice free by 2030, The Age, 2008 Sep. 20 (the melting of Arctic sea ice has reached a critical stage, with satellite images showing the disappearance of ice this year peaking at a level close to last year's record)
Richard Black, No 2008 record for Arctic sea ice, BBC, 2008 Sep. 16 (sea ice in the Arctic appears to have passed its minimum extent, scientists say, without breaking last year's record)
David Shukman, Conflict fear over Arctic borders, BBC, 2008 Sep. 10 (a senior US Coast Guard commander warns of conflict in the Arctic unless border disputes are resolved)
Richard Black, Sea level rise by 2100 'below 2m', BBC, 2008 Sep. 4 (natural restrictions on the way glaciers move means sea level rise above 2m this century is very unlikely)
Major ice-shelf loss for Canada, BBC, 2008 Sep. 5 (Canada's Arctic ice shelves have lost a colossal area this year, scientists report, with one 30 sq km shelf breaking off completely)
Adam Morton and Daniel Flitton, Poll finds $10 too far on carbon anxiety, The Age, 2008 Sep. 29 (Australians rate protecting jobs and strengthening the economy ahead of tackling climate change on a list of foreign policy goals, according to a new poll)
Adam Morton, Emissions forum not hot air: Liberals, The Age, 2008 Sep. 29 (suburban Liberal Party branch attacked for holding a climate science forum that will hear only one, unfashionable point of view: that climate change has nothing to do with skyrocketing greenhouse emissions)
David Adam, Met Office says climate change deniers deluded, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 23 (sceptics have their 'heads in the sand' and the evidence for global warming is clear, new report says)
Mark Hawthorne, Bank's burn-up warms climate sceptics, The Age, 2008 Sep. 18 (emails buzzed between the world's climate change sceptics on news of Lehman's fall—the bank played a big role in what the radical right thinks is a climate change scam)
Ben Goldacre, Don't let the facts spoil a good story, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 13 (academics' work can be ‘grossly and crassly misrepresented’ by the newspapers)
Suzanne Goldenberg, Palin under fire after grudging U-turn on global warming, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 13 (Alaska governor concedes that the problem of climate change may be man-made)
Peter Preston, Blown off course by Gustav, Observer, 2008 Sep. 7 (it's time to ask why the public's scepticism about climate change is growing, not fading)
Juliette Jowit, Meat must be rationed to four portions a week, says report on climate change, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 30 (return to old-fashioned cooking habits urged by study looking at food impact on greenhouse gases)
Paul Higgins and Sandy Teagle, Food shortage catastrophe creeping up on the world, The Age, 2008 Sep. 26 (cereal scenario looks doomed to an unhappy ending)
Lucy Battersby, Skippy du jour as top tucker, The Age, 2008 Sep. 24 (menus around the country are changing as the health and environmental benefits of kangaroo meat begin to outweigh concerns about eating Skippy)
Dewi Cooke, Global hunger the 'forgotten issue', The Age, 2008 Sep. 23 (the goal of eliminating global hunger has become a “forgotten” issue, a major aid organisation says)
Mark Kinver, 'Climate-proof' crop hunt begins, BBC, 2008 Sep. 23 (a global search begins for food crops carrying traits that are able to withstand future changes to the climate)
Tim Colebatch, Starving the world for profit, The Age, 2008 Sep. 16 (devastating food price rises have been years in the making; with world priorities gone wrong, solutions will be elusive)
Wet harvest may raise food prices, BBC, 2008 Sep. 11 (food prices could rise further because exceptionally wet weather has led to delays in the harvest, industry experts have told the BBC)
Juliette Jowit, UN says eat less meat to curb global warming, Observer, 2008 Sep. 7 (expert's advice on diet change to save environment likely to provoke strong reaction from food industry)
Alok Jha, Solar plant yields water and crops from the desert, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 3 (vast greenhouse installations using sea water could turn deserts into lush patches of vegetation)
Paul Higgins and Sandy Teagle, Food shortage catastrophe creeping up on the world, The Age, 2008 Sep. 26 (cereal scenario looks doomed to an unhappy ending)
Jason Dowling, State must plan for coastal swamping, The Age, 2008 Sep. 20 (a former planning minister warns that a two-metre sea level rise is possible)
Jonathan Amos, 'Climate crisis' needs brain gain, BBC, 2008 Sep. 7 (the former UK chief scientist says the climate challenge is so great, it demands the most brilliant minds tackle it)
Global warming: A changing climate of opinion?, Economist, 2008 Sep. 6 (some scientists think climate change needs a more radical approach; as well as trying to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, they have plans to re-engineer the Earth)
Richard Black, Sea level rise by 2100 'below 2m', BBC, 2008 Sep. 4 (natural restrictions on the way glaciers move means sea level rise above 2m this century is very unlikely)
David Adam, Hurricane Gustav: Fuzzy science confounds predictions, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 1 (report suggests increase in tropical storms is 'more likely than not' due to global warming)
Tim Hirsch, Brazil unveils deforestation plan, BBC, 2008 Sep. 26 (Brazil sets out a plan to end net deforestation by 2015, but with no targets on emission cuts)
Alex Duval Smith, New blow to 'lost souls' of Kalahari as bush fires rage, Observer, 2008 Sep. 21 (bushmen battling to preserve their way of life as grassfires devastate 80 per cent of game reserve)
Adam Morton, Fight over push to save red gums, The Age, 2008 Sep. 15 (locking up northern Victoria's stressed river red gum forests in series of national parks would be an economic winner for state, analysis shows)
Tom Phillips, Deforestation rises sharply as farmers push into Amazon, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 1 (government data reveals around 3,145 square miles of forest was removed over past 12 months)
Energy supplies: A chill wind, Economist, 2008 Sep. 27 (Britain's dependence on gas imports will increase)
Terry Macalister, Tar sands—the new toxic investment, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 17 (report warns against oil industry's equivalent of the sub-prime mortgage crisis)
EU in crop biofuel goal rethink, BBC, 2008 Sep. 11 (the European Union limits a biofuels target for road transport, concerned that biofuels contribute to rising food prices)
Steven Morris, How methane could spark a revolution, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 8 (quantities of high-quality gas found in south Wales could help ease UK's growing energy crisis)
Alok Jha, Solar plant yields water and crops from the desert, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 3 (green energy glasshouses may transform arid areas; fresh water will end need to dig wells, say architects)
Mathew Murphy, Companies respond to energy efficiency challenge, The Age, 2008 Sep. 2 (big business has started taking steps to improve energy efficiency, with a survey showing that 20% have already gone beyond the minimum requirements set by government)
Fergus Green, US climate debate may be sidelined, The Age, 2008 Sep. 29 (presidential candidates have deflected responsibility for action by focusing attention on China)
Terry Macalister, Crisis must be turned to green benefit, scientist says, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 23 (governments must show same boldness to move to a low-carbon economy as demonstrated when helping banks)
Water for farming: Running dry, Economist, 2008 Sep. 20 (the world has a water shortage, not a food shortage)
Climate change and the poor: Adapt or die, Economist, 2008 Sep. 13 (environmentalists have long said the world should concentrate on preventing climate change, not adapting to it; that is changing)
Richard Black, UK gives Bangladesh climate help, BBC, 2008 Sep. 10 (the UK is giving £75m to Bangladesh to help it prepare for the impacts of climate change, the government has announced)
John Vidal, UK gives £50m to Bangladesh climate change fund, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 8 (donors bid to stave off environmental devastation facing Bangladesh in next 40 years)
Juliette Jowit, UN says eat less meat to curb global warming, Observer, 2008 Sep. 7 (expert's advice on diet change to save environment likely to provoke strong reaction from food industry)
Jo Tuckman, Rise in illegal logging threatens butterflies, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 12 (traditional wintering site for monarch butterflies in central Mexico under continuing threat)
Peter Ker, Councils call for sporting chance, The Age, 2008 Sep. 29 (seasons in Melbourne are marked not by the turning of leaves but the shifting of goalposts)
Melissa Fyfe, Protesters sunk, refloated, The Age, 2008 Sep. 28 (the threat of Government legal action has effectively shut down the desalination protest group Your Water Your Say and forced the South Gippsland community to create another organisation in its place)
Adam Morton, Solar subsidy comes under fire, The Age, 2008 Sep. 27 (a controversial subsidy for household solar panels that divided John Brumby's cabinet faces a potential fight in the upper house)
Ben Doherty, Seaside landowners draw battle line in the sand, The Age, 2008 Sep. 27 (a council ban on building at Ninety Mile Beach sends land prices plummeting)
Adam Morton, Peter Ker and David Rood, Water pipeline a dud, says Flannery, The Age, 2008 Sep. 24 (environmentalist Tim Flannery has condemned Victoria's controversial north-south pipeline, describing the State Government's justification for it as “bullshit”)
Barry Hart, Gippsland's lakes are changing, yes—but far from dying, The Age, 2008 Sep. 21 (much is being done to manage the inevitable changes in the lakes district)
Josh Gordon, Water plan to help small farmers and boost Murray, The Age, 2008 Sep. 21 (small farmers in the Murray-Darling Basin will be able to sell their water entitlements to the Commonwealth for up to $150,000 under a plan to return 48 billion litres to the river system)
Royce Millar, Rainwater tanks survive push to make them optional, The Age, 2008 Sep. 18 (rainwater tanks appear to have survived a high-level bid to drop them from Victoria's green building rules)
Adam Morton, Latrobe 'vulnerable' in carbon plan, The Age, 2008 Sep. 17 (the Latrobe Valley is likely to be the worst affected region in Australia under emissions trading and needs pre-emptive action to help it cope, the Victorian Government says)
Adam Morton, Fight over push to save red gums, The Age, 2008 Sep. 15 (locking up northern Victoria's stressed river red gum forests in series of national parks would be an economic winner for state, analysis shows)
Peter Ker, State warns desalination plant bidders of shutdowns, The Age, 2008 Sep. 13 (bidders in the race to build Victoria's desalination plant have been told to expect periodical "shutdowns" at the plant, suspending its supply of water to Melbourne and complicating financial arrangements)
Peter Ker, Dry climate makes it east v west, The Age, 2008 Sep. 12 (climate change should be the catalyst for a radical social re-engineering of Victoria, according to a controversial submission to a State Parliament inquiry that has pitted the west of the state against the east)
Peter Ker, Keep desalination plant state-owned, The Age, 2008 Sep. 8 (Victoria's desalination plant should be owned and operated by the State Government to protect taxpayers and water conservation efforts, a parliamentary inquiry will be told today)
Peter Fisher, Planning for a flood, The Age, 2008 Sep. 29 (a sharp rise in sea levels will threaten coastal assets and major cities)
Sea levels to rise dramatically, BBC, 2008 Sep. 24 (a study of Scotland's risk of coastal flooding suggests sea levels could rise by about 30cm in parts of the country)
Fishing and conservation: A rising tide, Economist, 2008 Sep. 20 (scientists find proof that privatising fishing stocks can avert a disaster)
Jason Dowling, State must plan for coastal swamping, The Age, 2008 Sep. 20 (a former planning minister warns that a two-metre sea level rise is possible)
Jo Chandler, Antarctic chief scientist retires in climate of deep upheaval, The Age, 2008 Sep. 15 (as a zoology student in Aberdeen a little over 40 years ago, Michael Stoddart was taught that the one habitat on Earth that had not changed for 500 million years was the deep ocean abyss—the furthest, darkest, coldest reaches of the planet)
Judy Skatssoon, Death of the oceans, death of life as we know it, The Age, 2008 Sep. 13 (Canadian author Alanna Mitchell met Australian scientist Tim Flannery by chance while she was researching a book about the impact of climate change on the world's oceans)
Royce Millar, Coastal strategy all at sea as fears rise over compo claims, The Age, 2008 Sep. 13 (fear of massive compensation claims from aggrieved developers and property owners appears to have stalled the State Government's long-awaited strategy for dealing with the surging seas expected from climate change)
Phil Mercer, 'Extreme waves' worry Australia, BBC, 2008 Sep. 10 (Australia's coastline is being battered by extreme waves that are driven in part by climate change)
Carrie Sturrock, Fixing the world and cementing the future of building, The Age, 2008 Sep. 27 (inventor of “green cement” Brent Constantz promises his technology will eliminate huge amounts of carbon dioxide)
Alan Moran, Small voice with big ambitions, The Age, 2008 Sep. 26 (the costs of measures to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions tend to be hidden by the nature of economic analysis and modelling)
Robin McKie, Isle of plenty, Observer, 2008 Sep. 21 (on the Danish island of Samso the islanders have cut their carbon footprint by 140 per cent; with a simple grid of windfarms, solar panels and sheep, they're selling power to the mainland and taking calls from Shell)
Jason Dowling, Sustainable buildings put on the map, The Age, 2008 Sep. 20 (Melbourne companies working from sustainable buildings have found that it puts them on the map; literally)
Duncan Clark, Make the switch, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 13 (still using those old-fashioned energy-guzzling lightbulbs?; then it's time to do the bright thing and change; why eco lighting doesn't have to mean a gloomy slow burn)
Chee Chee Leung, Life in the eye of the storm, The Age, 2008 Sep. 13 (as Australia's chief weatherman heads to Geneva to work for the UN, he leaves as his legacy an urgent message on climate change—your time starts now)
Louise France, Meet the greenshifters, Observer, 2008 Sep. 7 (for the first time in generations, more people are moving to the countryside than are leaving, chicken keeping is the UK's fastest-growing hobby and for many self-sufficiency is no longer a pipe dream; France meets four families who've gone in search of the good life)
Green homes: Another green revolution, Economist, 2008 Sep. 6 (most homes are in the developing world; they are going green, too; part of a Technology Quarterly)
Green homes: Energy and the environment, Economist, 2008 Sep. 6 (even as housing markets in many countries collapse, demand is growing for low-impact “green” homes; part of a Technology Quarterly)
Transport: Whirlybirds go green, Economist, 2008 Sep. 6 (switching to diesel engines could make helicopters, and other aircraft, more efficient and less damaging to the environment; part of a Technology Quarterly)
Oliver Tickell, Geo-engineers, too, have a vital role in saving the planet, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 4 (cleaner fuel will not halt climate catastrophe; we need to find pioneering solutions that alter the earth's thermal balance)
David Adam, Extreme and risky action the only way to tackle global warming, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 1 (Royal Society papers suggest ways to combat global temperature rise through geo-engineering; fake clouds among ideas)
Alok Jha, Radical ideas to save the planet, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 1 (artificial clouds and use of carbon-neutral transport fuels among scientists' suggestions)
Adam Morton, Permafrost find adds to climate calamity, The Age, 2008 Sep. 13 (the blanket of permafrost covering a fifth of the world's land mass traps twice as much greenhouse gas as previously thought—and is more likely to trigger rapid climate change as it melts, research says)
James Randerson, Gravity-mapping satellite will help predict climate change, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 11 (£265m project will enable scientists to produce more precise picture of ocean currents)
Richard Black, Warming boosts strongest storms, BBC, 2008 Sep. 3 (as temperatures rise globally, strong storms in the tropics are getting stronger with faster winds, scientists show)
Marian Wilkinson and Adam Morton, Scientists urge PM: get tougher on climate, The Age, 2008 Sep. 29 (Australia's leading climate scientists write open letter to Kevin Rudd urging him to make deep cuts to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020)
Philip Hopkins, Rain gives hope for winter grain crop, The Age, 2008 Sep. 17 (widespread rain this month has boosted the prospects of the winter grain crop, but production is tipped to be lower than estimated earlier this year due to a dry winter)
Marian Wilkinson, Garnaut responds to vocal scientist critics, The Age, 2008 Sep. 11 (Ross Garnaut writes to senior Australian scientists and environmental leaders rejecting their claims that his latest report on climate change is weak)
Adam Morton, Garnaut is wrong, say scientists, The Age, 2008 Sep. 9 (Australia's most respected climate scientists have condemned the advice of greenhouse adviser Ross Garnaut and urged the Federal Government to take a more aggressive position at global climate change negotiations)
Peter Ker and Royce Millar, Drier 'new reality' to cost nation $30 billion to hydrate, The Age, 2008 Sep. 4 (Australia will spend at least $30 billion finding new sources of water over the next decade, as the nation's biggest water authorities declared yesterday there was no drought, but rather a drier "new reality")
Peter Ker and Chris Hammer, Trigger point to determine fate of lower Murray lakes, The Age, 2008 Sep. 3 (seawater would be flushed into the stricken lower lakes of the Murray River if an official low-water trigger point was reached, under a strategy set to be put to the country's water ministers)
Suzanne Carbone, Global cooling, The Age, 2008 Sep. 2 (Jason Kimberley has formed an environmental movement and completed the Climate Change Project, run by the ACF and Al Gore's leadership program)
Cameron Hepburn, Australia's climate record a poor joke, The Age, 2008 Sep. 1 (opportunities to help "lead and save" the world have been wasted)
Ian Sample, Over half of Europe's amphibians face extinction by 2050, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 26 (climate change, diseases and habitat destruction threaten to wipe out toads and newts especially)
John Vidal, 'There are many tiger widows here', Guardian, 2008 Sep. 25 (in the Sunderbans forests between India and Bangladesh, climate change is pitting people against tigers—with deadly consequences)
Peter Ker, Fears grow over platypus numbers, The Age, 2008 Sep. 8 (it might be enshrined on Australia's 20-cent coin, but the platypus is no longer a dime a dozen in parts of Victoria)
Water for farming: Running dry, Economist, 2008 Sep. 20 (the world has a water shortage, not a food shortage)
Juliette Jowit, Huge increase in spending on water urged to avert global catastrophe, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 11 (infrastructure investment must double, say experts as climate change likely to put 4bn people at risk)
Peter Ker, Buyback may give billions of litres to rivers, The Age, 2008 Sep. 11 (fight to return water to Murray-Darling river system receives major boost with Rudd Government swooping on massive rural property just hours before it was due to be auctioned)
Peter Ker, Corporations could control state's water capital, The Age, 2008 Sep. 5 (private companies may win control of Victoria's existing public water assets as part of the deal to build the new desalination plant at Wonthaggi)
Peter Ker and Royce Millar, Drier 'new reality' to cost nation $30 billion to hydrate, The Age, 2008 Sep. 4 (Australia will spend at least $30 billion finding new sources of water over the next decade, as the nation's biggest water authorities declared yesterday there was no drought, but rather a drier "new reality")
Peter Ker and Chris Hammer, Trigger point to determine fate of lower Murray lakes, The Age, 2008 Sep. 3 (seawater would be flushed into the stricken lower lakes of the Murray River if an official low-water trigger point was reached, under a strategy set to be put to the country's water ministers)
Caroline Davies, It's official: the summer was a total washout, Observer, 2008 Sep. 21 (with deadly floods and just 463.9 hours of sunshine, 2008's was one of the worst on record)
Keith Richburg and Joel Achenbach, Ike's devastating power leaves millions powerless, The Age, 2008 Sep. 15 (Texas and Louisiana begin massive recovery efforts, including searches for stranded and missing, after hurricane Ike pulverises Gulf Coast with maximum wind speeds of about 160 km/h)
James McKinley and Ian Urbina, Storm devastates Texas coast, The Age, 2008 Sep. 14 (hurricane Ike lashed the Texas coast last night with 180 km/h winds, churning towards America's fourth-largest city and threatening to devastate Galveston and other towns along the Gulf of Mexico with a wall of seawater seven metres high)
AFP, Hurricane Ike hot on Hanna's heels, The Age, 2008 Sep. 8 (the latest devastating storm to lash the Americas has swelled into an enormous hurricane)
Lisa Bachelor, Misery as storms batter UK, Observer, 2008 Sep. 7 (five die, 200 flood warnings are issued—and Britain is now braced for more bad weather)
AFP, More on the way as Caribbean feels Hanna's hammer, The Age, 2008 Sep. 6 (hurricane and two tropical storms threatening north-eastern Caribbean and US as death toll in Haiti from tropical storm Hanna rises to 136)
Tahmima Anam, Losing the ground beneath their feet, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 4 (climate change means that millions of people now face the risk of catastrophic flooding, but few more so than the char-dwellers of Bangladesh, clinging to tiny impermanent islands of sand in the Jamuna river; Anam returns to see what the future might hold for her homeland)
Randeep Ramesh, Heavy rain stalls Indian flood relief, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 1 (up to 3 million people affected and 2,000 dead in northern state of Bihar; battle to rescue 700,000 marooned villagers)
David Smith, Hurricane Gustav: New Orleans empties for next storm of the century, Guardian, 2008 Sep. 1 (the scars from Katrina are still fresh as the city prepares for the latest onslaught)