Geographical articles from May 2008

Geographical archives from May 2008

A world of diversity.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
May 1, 2008... One of the great things about working on Geographical is the incredible diversity of material to which I'm exposed. I've always had an enquiring mind, and it certainly gets its fill from the stories that I get to deal with each day. Indeed, I'm...

Where in the world?(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Identify this country using the following clues: * About 70 per cent of it: on lives in rural areas, while just 39 per cent is literate * More than a tenth of its land area is protected in some way *...

Women in the former Soviet state of Turkmenistan are being offered financial incentives to give birth to eight or more children in a bid to start a baby boom in the gas-rich nation.(TURKMENISTAN)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Women in the former Soviet state of Turkmenistan are being offered financial incentives to give birth to eight or more children in a bid to start a baby boom in the gas-rich nation. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said he will provide a...

The endangered water vole has received the same legal protection as otters following a six-year wait.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The endangered water vole has received the same legal protection as otters following a six-year wait. From the beginning of April, it became illegal to kill or disturb water voles, following a review of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981....

The congestion charge introduced to reduce traffic in central London in 2003 has had a significant impact on health, according to researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and King's College London.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The congestion charge introduced to reduce traffic in central London in 2003 has had a significant impact on health, according to researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and King's College...

Raul Castro, the new president of Cuba, is set to lift a ban on a wide range of consumer electrical appliances, according to an internal government memo leaked to Reuters news agency.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Raul Castro, the new president of Cuba, is set to lift a ban on a wide range of consumer electrical appliances, according to an internal government memo leaked to Reuters news agency. For the first time, ordinary Cubans will be able to purchase...

Sunscreen linked to coral damage.(WORLDWATCH)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Up to ten per cent of coral reefs are threatened by bleaching caused by chemicals in sunscreens, according to Italian scientists. Between 4,000 and 6,000 tonnes of sunscreen wash off swimmers annually in oceans...

Antiquities plundered as war continues in Iraq.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Even Iraq's archaeological riches aren't immune to the devastating effects of war. According to a new study, widespread looting of archaeological sites throughout southern Iraq has taken its toll on the 'cradle of civilisation'. Elizabeth...

Chinese bay set for 9billion [pounds sterling] clean-up.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Chinese government is to spend 9billion [pounds sterling] cleaning up Bo Hal Bay in the country's northeast, one of its most polluted coastal regions, according to the China Daily newspaper. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Industrial...

Early settlers brought farming, railways and a lot of dust.(WORLDWATCH)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... A study of sediment cores collected in Colorado in the western USA has shown that dust levels in the region rose sharply after the arrival of early settlers at the start of the 1800s. A team from the University of Colorado at Boulder...

Monsoon intensity driven by earth's orbit.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] By analysing stalagmites found in a cave in central-eastern China, US and Chinese researchers have discovered a link between the duration and intensity of the annual monsoon and small variations in the Earth's orbit....

Surf helps scientists predict eruptions.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Watching the waves may not only be a relaxing pastime, but could also provide warnings of volcanic eruptions, according to a new paper in the journal Nature Geoscience. Lead author of the paper, seismologist Florent Brenguier from the...

Top 10 most crowded road networks (vehicles per kilometre, 2004).(WORLDWATCH)(Table)
May 1, 2008... TOP 10 MOST CROWDED ROAD NETWORKS (VEHICLES PER KILOMETRE, 2004) 1 QATAR 283.6 2 HONG KONG 254.1 3 GERMANY 206.9 4 MACAU 185.5 5 KUWAIT 180.7...

World's glaciers melting at fastest rate yet.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The world's glaciers are melting at record rates, threatening the lives of the millions of people who depend on them for their water supplies, according to the latest figures from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)....

Experts deny climate change link to 2007 flooding.(CLIMATEWATCH)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The extreme floods that struck England last July weren't a result of global warming, but a remarkable demonstration of the unpredictability of the nation's weather, according to a report produced by a group of scientists from the Centre for...

Australia commits to Kyoto ...(Kyoto Protocol )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Australia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol has now come into force, following new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's signing of the climate treaty's paperwork moments after being sworn in. The move cements the nation's commitment to meeting and...

... But is it worth the effort?(China's greenhouse emissions)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... A group of US researchers have calculated that by 2010, emissions of greenhouse gases from China will be at least five times larger than the combined reductions of all of the countries that have signed up to the Kyoto protocol. The group, from...

Polar bear protection delayed.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... As Geogrophical went to print, several US environmental groups were preparing to sue the government agency responsible for conservation because they believe it's in breach of its mandate for failing to protect Alaskan polar bears, according to...

UK tidal power plant plan.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Plans for the world's first tidal power plant have been unveiled by Npower Renewables and Marine Current Turbines. Under the plans, seven turbines will be placed three kilometres off the Anglesey coast among a group of rocky islets known as the...

Rock analysis sheds light on Antarctic melting.(CLIMATEWATCH)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Analysis of boulders deposited by glaciers in Antarctica has shown that the rate at which the icecap is melting has increased dramatically in recent years, according to research published in the journal Geology. A team of glaciologists led...

Western Sahara.(HOTSPOT)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Despite the UN having spent more than 15 years and US$600million in search of a resolution, the dispute over the territory of Western Sahara remains unresolved. Located on Africa's northwestern edge, Western Sahara is one of the most...

Popular religions: allegiance to a single religion is professed by at least two thirds of the population in more than 80 per cent of the world's states.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While 80 per cent of people worldwide profess some religious allegiance, what this means differs from country to country and even from religion to religion. In Islam, the notion that religion is separate from...

High weald: Natalie Hoare heads to the UK's fourth largest AONB, which is often described as a quintessential English landscape, harbouring pristine meadows, historic heathland and the highest proportion of ancient woodland to be found anywhere in the British Isles.(AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY)
May 1, 2008... Flying in to Gatwick airport, over Sussex, Surrey and Kent, I'm often struck by how the elaborate tapestry of fields and woodland below belies the fact that this is the most crowded corner of the British Isles, home to millions of people. ...

Fieldwork and expeditions in the real world.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Supporting fieldwork and expeditions to advance the frontiers of geographical knowledge has been at the very heart of the Royal Geographical Society's work since it was established in 1830. While those going into the...

13 May, 7pm Concreting the countryside (21st Century Challenges series, London).(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Join Sir Peter Hall (pictured) and Martin Crookston as they explore the question of whether we need to concrete the countryside to accommodate the ever-expanding population of Southeast England in the third of the Society's 21st Century...

A selection of May's events.(IN SOCIETY)(Calendar)
May 1, 2008... For further information, please visit www.rgs.org/whatson, email events@rgs.org or call 020 7591 3100 8 May, 7pm Mapping London with Simon Foxall (LONDON CITY LECTURE, LONDON) For more than 500 years, London's mapmakers have restlessly...

Join the society--get the magazine.(Royal Geographical Society )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Often called the 'Home of Geography', the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) promotes an enjoyment and understanding of our world. Membership is open to anyone. You may use geography in your profession, have a...

Bill Tilman's typewriter: used by the British climber and sailor to write about his expeditions.(FROM THE COLLECTION)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At the age of 79, Harold William 'Bill' Tilman was asked by a captain in his 20s if he would like to crew for him on a sailing voyage to Smith Island in the Antarctic to climb Mount Foster. Tilman accepted, and on...

Royal Geographical Society with IBG.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Advancing geography and geographical learning Patron Her Majesty The Queen Honorary President HRH The Duke of Kent The Council President Professor Sir Gordon Conway Vice Presidents Andrew Linnell, Professor Sarah Metcalfe,...

City of ghosts.(towers)(Photograph)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bangkok's 'ghost towers' are remnants of the 1997 Asian economic crisis, when the Thai economy collapsed and foreign investment drained out of the capital. Afterwards, more than 500 half-finished high-rise...

The man who climbed Everest: the death of Sir Edmund Hillary in January represented the passing of the world's best known and best loved mountaineer. Although he came to be defined by his achievement in climbing the world's tallest mountain, he spent the remainder of his life or working tirelessly to improve the lives of his beloved Sherpas. Stephen Venables on the life of a remarkable man.(In memoriam)
May 1, 2008... With the possible exception of his summit companion, Tenzing Norgay, Edmund Hillary was the first--and only--mountaineer to achieve true global fame. From the age of 33, he was irrevocably, inescapably branded as The Man Who Climbed Everest....

The garbage people of Cairo: almost unseen by the citizens of Cairo, the Zabbaleen collect their refuse and sort it for recycling--making a living and providing an essential service to the city.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 2.15 am Rashid brings his little Bedford van to a stop and turns off the engine. He hops out, reaches into the back of the truck and pulls out his offa--a large woven basket that he swings onto his back,...

Scholars and Amazon: former director of the Royal Geographical Society John Hemming looks back at the Society's rich history of pioneering exploration and scientific expeditions in the Amazon rainforest, which resulted in discoveries that have shaped our modern understanding of the world.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When the young Yorkshire botanist Richard Spruce first saw the Amazon in 1849, he wrote excitedly to a friend: 'The largest river in the world flows through the largest forest. Fancy if you can two millions of square...

The cliff-dwellers: the Four Corners region of southwestern USA is littered with the remains of the ancestral Puebloan people and their antecedents, who inhabited the region for more than 10,000 years before mysteriously migrating south. But, as Geordie Torr discovers, this unique archaeological legacy is under threat.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When we think about archaeology and the Americas, our thoughts rarely get past the big three southern civilisations: the Incas, Aztecs and Maya. And that's hardly surprising, given their incredibly impressive...

That moment: our recent 'that moment' competition, sponsored by Gore-Tex, invited readers to tell us about their special travel moments. As the winning entries show, seeing the world certainly has the ability to change our world view.(The moment: THE WINNERS)
May 1, 2008... WINNER: Pete Kaspar Butterflies from the Buddah's garden The visual circuits of my young mind were first 'blown' when a garden tiger moth crawled laboriously over the sand dunes of Portstewart Strand in Northern Ireland at eye level. The...

Getting from A to B.(geographical archive)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] As these images from the archives of the Royal Geographical Society show, over the years, people have come up with a wide variety of methods to get themselves around. All had their positives--and negatives. Camels...

Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon.(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon by John Hemming Thames and Hudson, hb, pp368, 20 [pounds sterling] The Amazon was a colossal disappointment for the first generations of European colonists and...

Birds and People: Bonds in a Timeless Journey.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Birds and People: Bonds in a Timeless Journey by Nigel J Collar et al Cemex, hb, pp360, 29.99 [pounds sterling] It would be easy to overlook the text in a book filled with photos this gorgeous, but that...

Walter Rothschild: The Man, the Museum, the Menagerie.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Walter Rothschild: The Man, the Museum, the Menagerie by Miriam Rothschild Natural History Museum, pb, pp385, 9.99 [pounds sterling] The museum at Tring, which opened in 1892, housed the largest...

Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands by Christina Lamb Harper Press, pb, pp390, 8.99 [pounds sterling] Since the late 1980s, Christina Lamb--four-time war correspondent of the year has...

South Latitude.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... South Latitude by FD Ommanney First published in 1938. Most recent edition published by Read Books, pb, pp328, 17.45 [pounds sterling] According to the original publisher's blurb, FD Ommanney's superb South Latitude was...

Transylvania.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Transylvania by Bronwen Riley Frances Lincoln, hb, pp192, 30 [pounds sterling] I still meet people who don't really believe that Transylvania actually exists (Santo Cilauro and the other authors of Molvania: A Land Untouched by...

Dark Summit.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dark Summit by Nick Hell Virgin Books, hb, pp254, 18.99 [pounds sterling] 'Above 8,000 metres is not a place where people can afford morality.' This viewpoint is put to the test in Nick Heil's account...

Top 10 writer's reads.(Simon Reeve )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Simon Reeve is a British author and TV presenter. His latest book, Tropic of Capricorn, covers his adventures travelling along this southern circle of latitude 1. Collapse by Jared Diamond (Penguin, 9.99 [pounds sterling]) As climate...

Join the cavern club: the subterranean world has long fascinated outdoor enthusiasts, and cavers now regularly travel around the globe on missions to explore the world's deepest, darkest and longest cave networks. Robbie Shone describes the kit he packs on caving expeditions.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I am somewhere underground, deep in the Nakanai Mountains on the isolated island of New Britain, just off the southeast coast of Papua New Guinea. Yet again it has been raining on the surface, as the rising water...

Computing the costs: thanks to their rapid descent into obsolescence, home computers are now essentially disposable goods, But what happens to them after we consign them to the trash heap? And what about the problems associated with production?
May 1, 2008... Our ancestors would be stunned: not only do we inhabitants of the 21st century rely on computers in every aspect of our daily lives, but we're also remarkably casual about them, shopping for new PCs and so forth on our high streets the way we...

Festive frames: springtime is festival time all over the world. Capturing the riot of colour and movement that accompanies such events requires a steady hand and quick reflexes.(Geo photo)
May 1, 2008... In the myriad cultures of the world, spring is a time of celebration, with countless festivals to mark nature's rebirth after the long winter, and religious rites that help reinforce ethnic and national identity. In many European cultures, the...

Cottoning on to cotton's problems.(LETTER OF THE MONTH)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I would like to offer a few thoughts following on from Victoria Lambert's interesting article on cotton production (Trade secrets, March 2008). Much of Uzbekistan's cotton is grown on extensive irrigated state...

Evidence ignored.(MAILBAG)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I was deeply disappointed by the article in the March Geographical on marine aggregate dredging (Shifting sands) and the supporting editorial (Editor's letter). The article failed to make any reference to the volumes of scientific research into...

In conversation.(Sudhir Venkatesh)(Interview)
May 1, 2008... Sudhir Venkatesh, 41, is a US ethnologist who specialises in urban poverty. As a young graduate, he spent ten years studying the USA's largest government housing project, the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago. By befriending JT, leader of a gang...