2009 January: Climate
Anchor: Base Index
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Topics: Aquatic causes
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marine mitigation modelling
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vertebrates water weather
See also The Guardian's archive
and current collections,
and New Scientist's special report, which is continually updated.
Juliette Jowit, Living on thin ice, Observer, 2009 Jan. 25 (in a single year, the Arctic lost an area the size of Alaska; so how long before it melts altogether?; Jowit meets the British explorers risking their lives to find out)
Andrew Darby, Clear evidence emerges of Antarctic warming, The Age, 2009 Jan. 23 (a big white missing piece has been fitted into the global climate change jigsaw, with the first clear evidence that Antarctica is warming, like the rest of the southern hemisphere)
Juliette Jowitt, Most glaciers will disappear by middle of century and add to rising sea levels, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 19 (figures show lower melt rates for 2007 but loss of ice still third worst on record; threat to livelihoods of 2bn dependent on rivers)
Helena Smith, Greece paralysed as farmers ratchet up protests, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 28 (using tractors and trailers as blockades, Athens has been cut off from second city of Thessaloniki; compensation demanded for low food prices)
Daniel Flitton, More go hungry as world food prices rise, The Age, 2009 Jan. 27 (soaring food prices and the economic downturn of the past year have driven another 100 million people into poverty worldwide)
A billion frogs on world's plates, BBC, 2009 Jan. 22 (as many as one billion frogs are being harvested from the wild for human consumption each year, according to a new study)
Ian Sample, Billions face food shortages, study warns, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 9 (higher temperatures in tropics may ruin farming of staple food crops such as rice and maize by 2100; record temperatures to become normal in Europe)
James Morgan, Heat may spark world food crisis, BBC, 2009 Jan. 9 (half the world's population could face food crisis by 2100 as soaring temperatures cripple staple crops, scientists warn)
The sea: Plenty more fish in the sea?, Economist, 2009 Jan. 3 (no longer: technology has made the elusive and inexhaustible into easy prey; part of a special report)
The sea: Grabbing it all, Economist, 2009 Jan. 3 (in most places fisheries policies have failed completely; part of a special report)
The sea: An Icelandic success, Economist, 2009 Jan. 3 (a model way to catch and keep fish; part of a special report)
Robin McKie, President 'has four years to save Earth', Observer, 2009 Jan. 18 (Barack Obama has only four years to save the world according to Nasa scientist Jim Hansen)
Daniel Flitton, Secretly green, The Age, 2009 Jan. 17 (what does climate change have to do with spying?; to the Australian intelligence chief, it shows the need to focus on more than the usual wars and coups)
Tanya Syed, World 'needs radical cuts' on CO2, BBC, 2009 Jan. 14 (more carbon dioxide needs to be absorbed than emitted by 2050 in order to prevent catastrophic climate change, a report says)
Ian Sample, Billions face food shortages, study warns, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 9 (higher temperatures in tropics may ruin farming of staple food crops such as rice and maize by 2100; record temperatures to become normal in Europe)
James Morgan, Heat may spark world food crisis, BBC, 2009 Jan. 9 (half the world's population could face food crisis by 2100 as soaring temperatures cripple staple crops, scientists warn)
Rachel Carbonell, Global warming is a slow drip, drip, drip apocalypse, The Age, 2009 Jan. 6 (whether it's water or money, we're using more than we have)
William Laurance, Reality check for deforestation debate, BBC, 2009 Jan. 27 (the suggestion that tropical forests' biodiversity is more resilient than previously thought may be a little too optimistic)
Mark Kinver, Climate shift 'killing US trees', BBC, 2009 Jan. 22 (old growth trees in the western US are being killed as a result of regional climatic shifts, a study suggests)
Adrian Lowe, Hot winds drive bushfires, with worse to come, The Age, 2009 Jan. 23 (several central Victorian communities were last night on bushfire alert after high temperatures, strong storms and winds and high humidity caused a day of wild weather across the state)
Mark Poynter, As red gum forests turn green, The Age, 2009 Jan. 2 (national park status is only a green symbol and will do nothing for the Murray or ancient red gums)
Leigh Thomas, Temperatures drop as EU gas crisis heats up, The Age, 2009 Jan. 8 (gas shortages have spread across Europe as far west as France and Italy as cuts in Russian supplies through Ukrainian pipelines escalated an increasingly bitter crisis in the depths of winter)
George Monbiot, It will take more than goodwill and greenwash to save the biosphere, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 6 (Shell may boast about tackling climate change, but companies tend always to sacrifice good intentions for hard cash)
Greenhouse-gas emissions: California's green light, Economist, 2009 Jan. 31 (the president directs the EPA to reconsider standards)
Jeffrey Sachs, Rewriting the rulebook for 21st-century capitalism, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 28 (technology is at the core of Obama's plans for a sustainable future; in this new era of public action, the US is back in the lead)
Viola Gienger, US names climate envoy, The Age, 2009 Jan. 28 (US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces the choice of Todd Stern as a special envoy for climate change, saying the urgency of the global crisis can't be underestimated)
George Monbiot, This is indeed a class war, and the campaign against the Aga starts here, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 13 (climate change allows the richest on earth to trash the lives of the poorest, no matter how Furedi's cult spins it)
The environment: Green Bush, Economist, 2009 Jan. 10 (the departing president tries to burnish his environmental halo)
Andrew Darby, Signs of alarm among fauna at bottom of the sea, The Age, 2009 Jan. 19 (the latest bizarre finds have surfaced from the surreal world of the deep ocean south of Tasmania, and with them comes a warning)
James Morgan, Coral reef growth is slowest ever, BBC, 2009 Jan. 2 (growth of corals in the Great Barrier Reef has slowed to the most sluggish rate in 400 years, researchers say)
Royce Millar, Brumby's solar scheme a dud, say state officials, The Age, 2009 Jan. 29 (senior state bureaucrats attack Brumby Government's subsidy plan for household solar panels, saying it won't work)
Larissa Ham, Tracks buckle and so does rail system, The Age, 2009 Jan. 29 (Melbourne's crumbling rail system fails to cope again as tracks buckle and a record number of trains break down on the city's hottest day in six years)
Peter Ker, Sun turns up heat on dams, The Age, 2009 Jan. 29 (about 30 billion litres—a month's supply of water—is lost from Melbourne's dams to evaporation each year, and the hot, windy conditions experienced in recent weeks evaporate storages quickest)
Royce Millar, Solar power advice ignored, The Age, 2009 Jan. 28 (an ambitious solar power subsidy system—rejected as too expensive and "unfair" by the Brumby Government—would have cost Victorian households no more than 70 cents a week, according to confidential advice obtained by The Age)
Jason Dowling, Power supplies secure as heatwave sweeps state, The Age, 2009 Jan. 27 (Victoria has sufficient electricity supplies to meet the air-conditioner-fuelled surge in demand expected during this week's scorching temperatures)
Denise Gadd, Opposition says water use targets too severe, The Age, 2009 Jan. 24 (opposition says water use targets too severe)
Peter Ker, Marine expert hits desal claim, The Age, 2009 Jan. 17 (marine expert who dared to challenge State Government over environmental impact of Wonthaggi desalination plant complains of unfair treatment and misrepresentation in approval report)
Peter Ker, Water use soars with the heat, The Age, 2009 Jan. 17 (hot weather this week caused a setback to water conservation efforts in Melbourne)
Peter Ker, Desal plant approval likely today, The Age, 2009 Jan. 9 (Victoria's desalination plant poised to clear its most significant hurdle, with Planning Minister expected to rule on the project's environmental effects statement)
Melissa Fyfe, Water savers' flush of pride, The Age, 2009 Jan. 4 (the Premier wielded an adjustable spanner and changed a shower head; the Water Minister looked on; the hopes of a parched state were in the balance; would Melburnians heed the call and curb their water-wally ways to 155 litres a day?)
Peter Ker, Water plans face reshuffle to ease pain, The Age, 2009 Jan. 3 (Melbourne's unprecedented spending on water infrastructure could be revised, with some projects dumped, delayed or completed over a longer time frame to ease sharp price rises that will hit households soon)
Mark Poynter, As red gum forests turn green, The Age, 2009 Jan. 2 (national park status is only a green symbol and will do nothing for the Murray or ancient red gums)
Martin Flanagan, The lady of the lake, The Age, 2009 Jan. 2 (the story of Lake Bolac, in the Western District, is the all-too-common one of drought, and also one of a small community with healing on its mind)
Andrew Darby, Signs of alarm among fauna at bottom of the sea, The Age, 2009 Jan. 19 (the latest bizarre finds have surfaced from the surreal world of the deep ocean south of Tasmania, and with them comes a warning)
Andrew Darby, Ocean fertilisation plan near Antarctica hits trouble, The Age, 2009 Jan. 17 (elaborate international experiment to fertilise swathe of Southern Ocean runs into trouble)
John Grimond, The sea: Troubled waters, Economist, 2009 Jan. 3 (the sea is suffering, mostly at the hand of man; in the surface and coastal waters where 90% of marine life is to be found, the impact of man's activities is increasingly plain; introduction to a special report; other items:
Scramble for the seabed: the latest land-grab is under water and under way;
The curse of carbon: the sea is 30% more acidic than it would have been without man's new activities;
Man has used the oceans as a dustbin for far too long: but the sea can be harnessed for energy, and to store carbon;
Plenty more fish in the sea?: no longer: technology has made the elusive and inexhaustible into easy prey;
Grabbing it all: in most places fisheries policies have failed completely;
An Icelandic success: a model way to catch and keep fish;
Saline solutions: the sea needs research, management, property rights—and political action)
Geo-engineering: Every silver lining has a cloud, Economist, 2009 Jan. 31 (plans to engineer the climate may be less effective than had been hoped)
Norway and the environment: Binge and purge, Economist, 2009 Jan. 17 (home to a green-minded people and government, Norway exports the dirty stuff to the rest of the world; the result is a contradiction)
Kate Connolly, Schnitzel off the menu as Germans are told to cut down on eating meat, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 23 (government environmental agency urges Germany's carnivores to follow a more Mediterranean diet)
Peter Fisher, It's time literally to go green, The Age, 2009 Jan. 23 (as air-conditioner sales soar and concrete abounds, the role of trees, grass and other plant life in helping reduce carbon emissions is often overlooked)
David Adam, Paint it white, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 16 (global warming may seem like an overwhelmingly complex problem to tackle; but one scientist thinks the answer is brilliantly simple: all we need is white paint; a lot of white paint)
Richard Black, Farms to take heat out of warming, BBC, 2009 Jan. 15 (farmers could help curb rising global temperatures by selecting crop varieties that reflect solar energy back into space, researchers say)
Lucy Siegle, 20 big green ideas, Observer, 2009 Jan. 11 (troubled times call for ingenious solutions: some of the brightest recent ecovations)
James Randerson, Nasa climate expert makes personal appeal to Obama, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 2 (James Hansen warns of 'profound disconnect' between public policy and real scale of climate change)
Mark Kinver, Climate shift 'killing US trees', BBC, 2009 Jan. 22 (old growth trees in the western US are being killed as a result of regional climatic shifts, a study suggests)
Europe's lost mist 'boosts heat', BBC, 2009 Jan. 19 (the number of foggy, misty and hazy days is diminishing across Europe, amplifying warming, say scientists)
Andrew Darby, Signs of alarm among fauna at bottom of the sea, The Age, 2009 Jan. 19 (the latest bizarre finds have surfaced from the surreal world of the deep ocean south of Tasmania, and with them comes a warning)
Andrew Darby, Heard Island: Australia's bellwether on climate change, The Age, 2009 Jan. 16 (the latest bulletin is in from Australia's home of rapid polar environmental change, and it says the pace is hot)
Richard Black, Challenge to plant methane link, BBC, 2009 Jan. 14 (the recent finding that plants are a major source of the greenhouse gas methane is challenged by new research)
David Adam, Sea absorbing less CO2, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 12 (stricter emissions targets needed to curb temperature rises caused by disruption of 'ventilation' process)
David Spratt, Warming gets cold shoulder from Canberra, The Age, 2009 Jan. 29 (the Government is jogging on the spot when it needs to take big strides)
Royce Millar, Solar industry cash dries up, The Age, 2009 Jan. 27 (Australia is forfeiting billions of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs through its lack of support for solar energy, according to European companies that have shunned the sunburnt country)
Ben Cubby, Green homes may pay for big polluters, The Age, 2009 Jan. 26 (a quirk in the Federal Government's proposed carbon trading scheme means household efforts to cut carbon footprints could simply translate into more money in the pockets of heavy polluters, many economists and environment groups believe)
Michelle Grattan, Turnbull to go hard on emissions, The Age, 2009 Jan. 24 (Malcolm Turnbull moves to get on front foot over climate change, proposing measures to cut emissions substantially more than the Government guarantees under its emissions trading scheme)
Peter Ker, Population Australia's 'big threat', The Age, 2009 Jan. 24 (prominent Australians throw support behind a controversial new book which argues that population growth is the biggest threat to environmental sustainability)
Daniel Flitton, Secretly green, The Age, 2009 Jan. 17 (what does climate change have to do with spying?; to the Australian intelligence chief, it shows the need to focus on more than the usual wars and coups)
Bob McMahon, It's time to stop and get off the Gunns pulp mill merry-go-round, The Age, 2009 Jan. 8 (the process surrounding this enterprise has been a disgrace to government)
Peter Ker, Sun turns up heat on dams, The Age, 2009 Jan. 29 (about 30 billion litres—a month's supply of water—is lost from Melbourne's dams to evaporation each year, and the hot, windy conditions experienced in recent weeks evaporate storages quickest)
Peter Ker, Desal plant approval likely today, The Age, 2009 Jan. 9 (Victoria's desalination plant poised to clear its most significant hurdle, with Planning Minister expected to rule on the project's environmental effects statement)
Melissa Fyfe, Water savers' flush of pride, The Age, 2009 Jan. 4 (the Premier wielded an adjustable spanner and changed a shower head; the Water Minister looked on; the hopes of a parched state were in the balance; would Melburnians heed the call and curb their water-wally ways to 155 litres a day?)
Peter Ker, Water plans face reshuffle to ease pain, The Age, 2009 Jan. 3 (Melbourne's unprecedented spending on water infrastructure could be revised, with some projects dumped, delayed or completed over a longer time frame to ease sharp price rises that will hit households soon)
Andra Jackson, Melbourne faces worst hot spell in 100 years, The Age, 2009 Jan. 27 (Melburnians, brace yourselves; over the the next five days, we are in for the longest heatwave experienced here in recorded times)
AFP, Deadly winds lash Europe, The Age, 2009 Jan. 26 (rescuers in Spain and France have launched a desperate operation to clear up wrecked homes, roads and power lines after hurricane-force winds killed 15 people, including nine trapped under a collapsing sports hall near Barcelona)
John Tagliabue, Skaters swarm to canals as big freeze fires Dutch soul, The Age, 2009 Jan. 17 (many children are seeing icy waterways for the first time)
Steven Morris, Curried pasties and soup as Arctic hits UK, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 7 (south-west of England to face lowest temperatures as Met Office says cold snap will continue)
Peter Ker, Melbourne's rising mercury, The Age, 2009 Jan. 2 (temperatures were almost a full degree hotter in Melbourne during 2008 compared to the long-term average, as the trend for hot conditions showed no sign of abating)
Lee Glendinning, Revellers defy big chill to celebrate coldest New Year's Eve in a decade, Guardian, 2009 Jan. 1 (England colder than Iceland, Scotland colder than Moscow but the Brits still partied in the streets; many more stay at home amid economic gloom; events organisers forced to offer cut-price tickets)