Geographical articles from January 2009

Geographical archives from January 2009

Farming to the rescue.(FROM THE editor)(Editorial)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I'm on record as saying that I don't think that technological fixes are the answer to the threat of global climate change. However, I must admit to feeling quite optimistic about a new strategy for reducing levels of...

Geographical competition.(WHERE IN THE world?)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Identify this country using the following clues: Four fifths of the country is more than 1,000 metres above sea level Minerals account for about half of its exports In 2006, it celebrated the 800th...

New GIS system to help conserve South Georgia's wildlife.(Geographic Information System)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A new mapping system has been developed by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) to boost efforts to conserve the wildlife of South Georgia, a UK territory located in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Commissioned by the...

China counts the environmental cost of development.(WORLD watch)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] China counts the environmental cost of development: The cost of environmental damage in 2005 in China outweighed GDP growth by 13.9 per cent, according to a recent study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The...

New map reveals conflict potential of shared aquifers.(WORLD watch)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Following almost a decade of discussion and negotiation between governments and UNESCO, a comprehensive new map (above) has been drawn showing the locations of the world's 273 shared underground aquifers. While...

Livestock price link to farmland plant diversity.(WORLD watch)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... * Livestock price link to farmland plant diversity: The diversity of plant species in two Scottish regions has been directly linked to the value of cattle and sheep farming over the past 400 years, according to a recent study. Researchers...

Nile Valley wasn't the only route out of Africa.(WORLD watch)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... * Nile Valley wasn't the only route out of Africa: Contrary to the widely accepted theory that early humans dispersed from sub-Saharan Africa via the Nile Valley, new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

A new assessment of water quality has shown that more than 80 per cent of water bodies in England and Wales are failing to reach 'good' status.(UK)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... A new assessment of water quality has shown that more than 80 per cent of water bodies in England and Wales are failing to reach 'good' status. The findings of the draft Water Framework Directive contrast starkly with those of the previous...

Health officials in Tanzania have developed a cherry-flavoured anti-malaria pill that should improve treatment of children, according to research published online in medical journal The Lancet.(TANZANIA)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Health officials in Tanzania have developed a cherry-flavoured anti-malaria pill that should improve treatment of children, according to research published online in medical journal The Lancet. Traditional anti-malarials are extremely bitter,...

Analysis of the charred remains of prehistoric fires found in modern-day Jordan has shown that early humans had developed the ability to make fire almost 800,000 years ago, according to new research published in Quaternary Science Reviews.(JORDAN)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Analysis of the charred remains of prehistoric fires found in modern-day Jordan has shown that early humans had developed the ability to make fire almost 800,000 years ago, according to new research published in Quaternary Science Reviews. The...

The 'mud volcano' in Sidoarjo in East Java that has been emitting mud and boiling water since May 2006, displacing thousands of people, was triggered by exploratory drilling for oil, according to a panel of scientists.(INDONESIA)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The 'mud volcano' in Sidoarjo in East Java that has been emitting mud and boiling water since May 2006, displacing thousands of people, was triggered by exploratory drilling for oil, according to a panel of scientists. After debating new...

Maldives saving up to buy a new homeland.(CLIMATE watch)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The new president of the Maldives is preparing to buy a new home--for the country's entire 300,000-strong population. The rise in sea level as a result of climate change has meant that the archipelago, whose...

Ocean salinity on the rise: Evidence showing that human activity is changing the salinity of the world's oceans is beginning to emerge in subtropical regions, according to new research.(CLIMATE watch)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Ocean salinity on the rise: Evidence showing that human activity is changing the salinity of the world's oceans is beginning to emerge in subtropical regions, according to new research. Using 40 years of data from the Atlantic Ocean,...

Algae to be used to make'green oil': The Carbon Trust is to contribute up to 6million [pounds sterling] to a UK research and development initiative that aims to find a commercially viable method of producing a new biofuel made from algae.(CLIMATE watch)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Algae to be used to make'green oil': The Carbon Trust is to contribute up to 6million [pounds sterling] to a UK research and development initiative that aims to find a commercially viable method of producing a new...

Under a new partnership, Qatar is to set up a 250million [pounds sterling] fund to invest in low-carbon technology, primarily in the UK.(QATAR)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... QATAR Under a new partnership, Qatar is to set up a 250million [pounds sterling] fund to invest in low-carbon technology, primarily in the UK. It's hoped that the deal between the Qatari Investment Authority and the UK's Carbon Trust will...

A deal has been struck between Ethiopian and French energy companies to build the largest wind farm in Africa in the landlocked East African nation.(ETHIOPIA)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... ETHIOPIA A deal has been struck between Ethiopian and French energy companies to build the largest wind farm in Africa in the landlocked East African nation. Once completed, the 220million [euro] wind farm will produce 120 megawatts, making it...

Scientists are working to create the most detailed profile of future hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... CARIBBEAN Scientists are working to create the most detailed profile of future hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean in order to give insurance underwriters a better idea of risk. Scientists from the Willis Research Network...

The Royal Society has begun a study into 'geo-engineering.(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... UK The Royal Society has begun a study into 'geo-engineering', the label given to concepts that are designed to help humanity to avert climate change. Many such ideas--including sowing the oceans with iron particles to boost growth of...

Corfu.(HOT spot)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THERE IS GROWING PRESSURE FROM residents of the Greek island of Corfu for further autonomy from the central government in Athens. A group of locals have been publicly campaigning for the Athenian authorities to...

Cannock Chase: Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: Natalie Roare visits the UK's smallest mainland AONB, which encompasses the largest surviving area of lowland heath in the Midlands and once acted as a training ground for more than half a million men destined for combat during both the first and second world wars.(NATURAL beauty)
January 1, 2009... 'HERE'S THE FIRST WORLD WAR CAMP,' SAYS ANNE WALKER, one of the staff at the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), as she points at a patch of heathland dotted with trees and bathed in low autumnal sunlight. 'And over in...

Learning and leading.(Royal Geographical Society's new educational program)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FOR MANY OF US, OUR LIFELONG PASSION FOR GEOGRAPHY was sparked by a week-long A-level field trip, travelling overseas on a gap year or taking part in a university fieldwork project. It may have been the...

Selection of events: royal geographical society (with IBG).(IN society)(Calendar)
January 1, 2009... JANUARY 2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 FROM 6 JANUARY FROM KABUL TO KANDAHAR 1833-1933 (Exhibition, London) This engaging exhibition, which includes a selection of...

26 January, 6.30PM: an evening with Charley Boorman.(Event of the month)
January 1, 2009... (Lecture, London) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In an exclusive members-only event, Charley Boorman will recount his globetrotting adventures by motorbike, tuk-tuk, dugout canoe, solar car and every possible mode of transport in between. ...

Mariner's astrolabe: used by captain David Wilson-Barker while laying submarine telegraph cables.
January 1, 2009... UNTIL AROUND THE 13TH century, ship's captains would get worried if they couldn't see land. With only very rough maps and a basic knowledge of the stars to guide them, the open ocean was almost impossible to navigate. This changed when various...

Logging out: since the first timber mills were set up during the early 1800s, logging has sustained communities throughout the northwest USA. But, now, stricter environmental laws and the lure of city jobs has sent the industry into decline, and a traditional way of life is disappearing.(photostory LOGGING)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Will Hart, a forester with the Washington Department of Natural Resources, stands on a stack of Douglas fir poles. Hart, the first member of his family to work in the timber industry is an...

Dishing the dirt: much of the time we treat it like dirt, but could the humble farm field hold the key to fighting climate change?
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THERE'S A NEW CROP THAT HAS increasing numbers of Australian farmers excited, but it has nothing to do with wool, wheat or beef. You can't see it, you can't eat it and you can't win prizes with it at the local...

Travels with the father of history and geography: Justin Marozzi has spent the past four years travelling in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece on the trail of Herodotus. Here, he describes his passion for the man who invented history and why we should all read him 2,500 years after the Greek wrote his one-volume masterpiece.
January 1, 2009... When Herodotus sat down to write his epic history of the Persian Wars sometime in the second half of the fifth century BC, he can hardly have thought he would still be required reading 2,500 years later. It's unlikely he had any inkling...

A glacial gathering: as the Arctic winter draws in, farmers converge on the sparsely populated uplands of Iceland to round up sheep and horses that have spent the summer grazing there in a traditional activity that dates back more than 1,000 years.(travel ICELAND)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FAR ACROSS THE RUGGED HIGHLANDS BENEATH THE brooding mass of the vast Eiriksjokull glacier, a line of distant horsemen moves slowly along the horizon. As a veil of cold stinging rain sweeps down from the glacier, I...

Can tourism save India's tigers? Current efforts to save India's dwindling tiger populations are failing. But carefully managed tourism could offer this regal its best chance of survival, argues Julian Matthews, chairman of the Travel Operators for Tigers campaign.(opinion: TIGER TOURISM)(Cover story)
January 1, 2009... LAST YEAR'S OFFICIAL REPORT INTO the state of India's tigers makes for grim reading. After two years and 500.000 man hours of effort, two government bodies, the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife Institute of India, came up...

Desert driver: Ralph Alger Bagnold was the founder and first commander of the Long Range Desert Group, a British Army unit that worked far behind enemy lines in the Allied desert campaign during the Second World War. But he's perhaps best known as a pioneer of the use of vehicles in desert exploration, developing techniques and devices that are still being used today.(GEOGRAPHICAL archive)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RIGHT: Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold (undated). The son of a British Army officer and brother of novelist Enid Bagnold (author of National Velvet), Bagnold served in the First World War before studying engineering at...

Africa's crude awakening.(Crude Continent: The Struggle for Africa's Oil Prize)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... CRUDE CONTINENT: The Struggle for Africa's Oil Prize by Duncan Clarke PROFILE BOOKS, HB, 35[pounds sterling] Duncan Clarke is sick and tired of all the chatter about Africa's 'oil curse'. He has launched a broadside against the...

A Disastrous History Of The World: Chronicles of War, Earthquakes, Plague and Flood.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... A DISASTROUS HISTORY OF THE WORLD: Chronicles of War, Earthquakes, Plague and Flood by John Withington PIATKUS, HB, 16.99 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's hubris, of course, but we tend to imagine that the scale...

What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of our Times.(Book review)
January 1, 2009... What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of our Times edited by David Elliot Cohen STERLING PUBLISHING, HB, 17.99 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In his introduction,...

Passport to Enclavia: Travels in Search of a European Identity.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... PASSPORT TO ENCLAVIA: Travels in Search of a European Identity by Vitali Vitaliev REPORTAGE PRESS, PB, 12.99 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Enclaves are parts of one country landlocked by the territory of another,...

Top Ten: Writer's Reads.(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... 1. DESERT SOLITAIRE BY EDWARD ABBEY (TOUCHSTONE, US$14.95) One of the world's greatest wilderness writers and an inspiration for me 2. NATURAL, ACTS: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature BY DAVID QUAMMEN (WW NORTON, US$24.95) ...

Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... OXFORD HANDBOOK OF EXPEDITION AND WILDERNESS MEDICINE by Chris Johnson et al. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, PB, 29.95 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Having dug out the casualties following the avalanche at Camp One on...

The Last Men: Journey among the Tribes of New Guinea.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... THE LAST MEN: Journey among the Tribes of New Guinea by Iago Corazza WHITE STAR PUBLISHERS, HB, 35 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'The last men of the earth' is what the title is getting at: in New Guinea, there...

WITH SCOTT IN THE ANTARCTIC: Edward Wilson, Explorer, Naturalist, Artist.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... WITH SCOTT IN THE ANTARCTIC: Edward Wilson, Explorer, Naturalist, Artist by Isobel Williams THE HISTORY PRESS, HB, 20 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The world lost a truly extraordinary man on Antarctica's Ross Ice...

The digital explorer: thanks to the wonders of modern technology, keeping a record of your travels and then communicating to others has never been easier.(ESSENTIAL gear)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THERE'S ONE BIG DRAWBACK TO USING a laptop in the driving rain: no windscreen wipers. It was a miserable night in what passes for summer in Scotland and I was hunched over a ruggedised laptop. I could only type in...

Ten of the best.(ESSENTIAL gear)(Buyers guide)
January 1, 2009... There's an increasingly bewildering array of devices available for digital explorers. Here, Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop offers his tips on the best technology for making a record of your next expedition Don't forget... ... to always carry a...

Woolly thinking: once reserved as exotic luxuries for the aristocracy, cashmere garments are now manufactured for high-street retailers as fashionable and affordable clothes for the masses. But what effect is increasing demand for this fine material having on the regions in which it's produced?
January 1, 2009... WE COULD BLAME NAPOLEON. It was the French emperor who kickstarted the fashion for cashmere when he legendarily gave the empress Eugenie 17 scarves made of wool so fine they could each be passed through her wedding ring. But even in the late...

Five to try.(TRADE secrets)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] (1) Pure Collection pashmina shawl 119 [pounds sterling] Pure has set a target to source all of its cashmere from goats farmed in Mongolia in a sustainable way by the end of this year....

Winter warmers: as the world warms, we seem to be seeing less and less snow each winter, which makes it all the more important for photographers to be prepared for action when it does fall. Keith Wilson offers his tips for getting the most out of a winter wonderland.
January 1, 2009... IN THE UK, LONG, SNOW-CLAD winters are, it seems, a thing of the past. But as the days get shorter, there's still a feeling of anticipation that a heavy snowfall or severe frost could be on its way, providing photographers with a chance to...

Defending Belgium.(Letter of the month)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... I read your article on aviation technology (Goodbye fuel world, December 2008) with interest. I was tickled to see the quote from a 'senior expert at a major airline', who said that if we were to use algae as a biomass to liquid fuel to meet...

Extended breaks.(MAIL bag)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In response to your discussion on the tourism industry's future (The future of travel, December 2008), it would be wonderful for all of us who want to take longer holidays abroad--rather than lots of short trips--if...

Still no right to return.(MAIL bag)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... The majority verdict of the Law Lords in October, which effectively denied the Chagossians the right to return to their homeland, doesn't close off the question of resettlement. This is now a matter for parliament, and parliamentarians from all...

Understanding Africa.(MAIL bag)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I was fascinated by the images from Steve Bloom's book, Living Africa (The essence of Africa, December 2008). The diversity of wildlife, landscapes and cultures on this vast continent is truly wondrous. It led...

A different way around.(MAIL bag)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It was refreshing to read the account of Stevie Smith's and Jason Lewis's human-powered ocean crossings (Pedalling the Pacific, November 2008). I met Stevie, a very impressive young man, several years ago when he...

Marina Silva.(I'M A geographer)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Marina Silva, 50, served as Brazil's minister for the environment from 2002 until her resignation in May last year, overseeing the protection of several million hectares of Amazon rainforest, helping to deliver several globally important...

Curriculum vitae.(Sammy Wilson)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... 1958 Born in the Amazonian state of Acre, which borders Bolivia and Peru 1984 Graduated with a teaching degree in history from Federal University of Acre 1985-87 School teacher, Rio Branco, and lecturer, Federal University of Acre ...