Geographical articles from November 2008

Geographical archives from November 2008

Use them or lose them.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
November 1, 2008... I think we're all now pretty much in agreement about the need to preserve the world's biodiversity. And most people would agree that cultural diversity provides benefits for communities and is worthy of protection. But there's an area where...

Where in the world?(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Identify this country using the following clues: * More than half of its electricity is generated by hydropower * Twenty nine per cent of its land area and 7.6 per cent of its territorial seas are protected...

Drowned forests set to rescue living forests.(WORLDWATCH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... An underwater forest beneath a reservoir in Ghana is to be logged this autumn. The trees in Lake Volta, Africa's largest man-made lake, were submerged 40 years ago when a hydroelectric dam was constructed. But because the forest was made...

Diamonds reveal what is happening inside the earth.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Traces of minerals found inside diamonds are showing scientists what is taking place hundreds of metres under the Earth's crust, according to a report published in the journal Nature. While the ocean's crust is constantly forming as new...

Millions of farmers growing food in untreated sewage.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... More than 200 million farmers are using untreated waste water to grow food, according to a new study. The water often contains sewage, putting both the farmers and the people who buy their produce at risk of disease. But while the practice...

Victory for Peru's indigenous peoples as Congress repeals land laws.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The Peruvian Congress has voted to revoke controversial legislation that sought to open up the country's Amazon areas to development, following 11 days of protests by indigenous groups. The Congress voted to repeal the two laws--which would...

Remote Amazon rainforest was once crowded.(WORLD WATCH)
November 1, 2008... The Upper Xingu region of the Amazon forest was densely populated before European colonists arrived, according to new research published in the journal Science. At one time, the area in western Brazil was thought to have been left...

A document accidentally published on the internet has revealed plans to build 12 hydroelectric dams in the state of Sarawak.(MALAYSIA)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... A document accidentally published on the internet has revealed plans to build 12 hydroelectric dams in the state of Sarawak. If built, the dams would submerge the homes of more than 1,000 Penan, Kelabit and Kenyah tribal people who live in the...

Ships' emissions may be lowering the air quality of coastal cities, according to a new US study.(USA)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Ships' emissions may be lowering the air quality of coastal cities, according to a new US study. Scientists from the University of California at San Diego found that ships were releasing more sulphur particles into the atmosphere than had...

Impoverished Indians are being encouraged to eat rat meat to cope with food shortages.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Impoverished Indians are being encouraged to eat rat meat to cope with food shortages. Vijay Prakash of Bihar state's welfare department, has encouraged the low-caste Musahar community to eat the delicacy, which, he says, is nutritious and has...

Scientists at the University of Southampton have been asking people if they think the burbot should be reintroduced into British rivers.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Scientists at the University of Southampton have been asking people if they think the burbot should be reintroduced into British rivers. The burbot, a freshwater member of the cod family, is the only fish to have become extinct in Britain over...

Around 125,000 western lowland gorillas have been discovered in the Republic of Congo.(REPUBLIC OF CONGO)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Around 125,000 western lowland gorillas have been discovered in the Republic of Congo. The subspecies, which lives in African swamps and forests, is classified as critically endangered. There were previously thought to be only 50,000...

Rising price of fertiliser hits world's poor.(WORLDWATCH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Soaring fertiliser prices are hitting the world's poorest people, including subsistence farmers in developing countries, as a result of larger countries stockpiling supplies, according to the UN. Fertiliser prices have risen sharply over...

Tectonic plates create 'hotspots' of fish and coral.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The abundance of marine life in the seas between Indonesia and Australia could be the result of continental shifts over millions of years, according to new research. A study of marine fossils by an international team of scientists has...

High temperatures inhibit carbon dioxide absorption.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As global warming heats up the Earth, plants and soil may absorb less carbon dioxide, according to new research. Plants and soil usually soak up atmospheric C[O.sub.2], but research published in Nature suggests...

Melting glacier could spell disaster for Kashmir.(CLIMATEWATCH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Kolahoi glacier, the Kashmir valley's only permanent water source, could completely disappear within the next ten years, according to scientists who visited the area in August. The expedition, conducted by...

Arctic sea ice is second lowest on record.(CLIMATEWATCH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The area of ice covering the North Pole has shrunk to its second-lowest levels since satellites were first used to survey the ice in 1979. And even though there was more ice there than last year, scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Data...

This year is set to be the coolest this century, according to the UK Met Office.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... This year is set to be the coolest this century, according to the UK Met Office. Global temperatures in the first half of 2008 were more than 0.1 [degrees]C cooler than any year since 2000. The main reason for the cool-down is La Nit, a, which...

Sending old newspapers and plastic bottles to China saves more carbon emissions than sending them to UK landfill sites and producing new goods, says a study from a government body trying to reduce UK waste.(UK)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Sending old newspapers and plastic bottles to China saves more carbon emissions than sending them to UK landfill sites and producing new goods, says a study from a government body trying to reduce UK waste. The report found shipping the...

British cows are being put on a new diet in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent.(UK)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... British cows are being put on a new diet in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent. Chopped hay and straw is being mixed into their usual diet of silage, wheat, maize, soya or sugar beet. Initial results show the amount...

Carbon emissions are undermining coral reefs' ability to repair themselves.(GLOBAL)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Carbon emissions are undermining coral reefs' ability to repair themselves. They need calcium carbonate to mend holes created by sea creatures and erosion, but the more C[O.sub.2] there is in the atmosphere, the more it's absorbed by the sea,...

Mongolia.(HOTSPOT)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In July, the political situation in Mongolia deteriorated significantly, and violent protests erupted in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. The catalyst for the unrest was electoral fraud, with opposition parties accusing the...

Health: numerous related factors influence life expectancies around the world, from food consumption to medical provision.
November 1, 2008... In much of the world, average life expectancies are increasing. The rises are attributed to improvements in agriculture and, hence, nutrition, as well as health education, improved sanitation and drinking water quality, together with advances...

Blackdown Hills: area of outstanding natural beauty: riven with river valleys and dotted with Iron Age hillforts, the Blackdown Hills on the Somerset-Devon border in southwestern England are being opened up by a new trail system. Olivia Edward meets some of the people working to improve access and preserve the region's unique character.
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I'm feeling rather intrepid. We're cutting a path through some thick, wet undergrowth, on the hunt for a herd of longhorn cattle. The ground underneath is uneven and boggy, and we have to be careful not to tread on...

Travelling with the circus, the Mexican way: Emily Ainsworth is this year's winner of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and BBC Radio 4 Journey of a Lifetime Award. She travelled to Mexico and joined a family circus, and in this exclusive piece for Geographical, she reveals the world she found there.(IN SOCIETY)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Humberto's brother was missing a finger. He had lost it when he tried, and failed, to prise his daughter's head from the jaws of a tiger she was taming. Humberto had himself sold the tigers to his brother's circus;...

Event of the month.(IN SOCIETY)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 4 November, 7pm Discovering people: Brian Blessed (LECTURE, LONDON) Join Libby Purves in conversation with Brian Blessed, one of Britain's best-loved actors, directors and writers, as well as a...

A selection of November's events.(IN SOCIETY)(Calendar)
November 1, 2008... For further information, please visit www.rgs.org/whatson, email events@rgs.org or call 020 7591 3100 6-9 November Conde Nast Traveller presents the Luxury Travel Fair with British Airways (TRAVEL EVENT, LONDON) Featuring...

Arabian chest: once the property of the wife of the third sultan of Zanzibar.(Sayyida Moza bint Hamad al-Busaid)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Arabian chests became popular during the early 20th century when European travellers and explorers bought them as symbols of the 'romantic' Arabian Empire. But most weren't actually Arabian; many were originally...

The path to enlightenment.(monasteries in Tibet)(Photograph)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Earlier this year, two French photojournalists visited an isolated monastery known as Yachen Gonpa in eastern Tibet. Little known outside of the region, the monastery serves around 8,000 Buddhist monks and nuns, and...

Orchard country: traditional orchards have been a vital feature of Britain's landscape and culture for centuries. James Russell finds out why they were planted, and why they're now under threat.
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Just outside the village of Kingsbury Episcopi, overlooking the flat lands of central Somerset, Burrow Hill stands like a Neolithic monument--Solsbury in miniature, topped by a single sycamore. You can see it for...

A lost world above the clouds.(Mount Roraima in Guiana Highlands )
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Skirted on all sides by sheer walls up to 450 metres in height, the colossal sandstone mesa Mount Roraima in the Guiana Highlands was once proclaimed 'unscalable' and 'forever beyond the reach of mankind'. But 124...

World of confusion: the Vatican Library holds a previously unstudied map from the 16th century that raises intriguing questions about European conceptions of Columbus's voyages to the New World.
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Exploration in the Middle Ages and Renaissance was a tricky business--something that's easy to forget and perhaps hard to grasp for a society used to the conveniences of satellite images and GPS. Christopher...

A game of cat and mouse: in the dense jungle of Brazil's Mata Atlantica--the Atlantic Rainforest--a small team of international volunteers is assisting local biologists in efforts to track down two of the region's most elusive inhabitants: the jaguar and the puma.(Jaguar research)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Watch your step; says Dr Marcello Mazzolli as he examines the soft mud of the jungle trail. The patch looks perfect, and he and his research team quickly set about meticulously manicuring it like a Zen sand garden,...

Win the experience of a lifetime: help with Arabian leopard conservation in Oman.
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Has this feature on the Brazil expedition whetted your appetite to join Biosphere Expeditions on one of its research projects? Then this is your chance to join a unique Arabian leopard conservation expedition to...

A simple abode: high in the little-explored Knuckles Range of Sri Lanka, a grassroots tourism project is helping to sustain and preserve the traditional ways of a dwindling village community.
November 1, 2008... Walking uphill in the pouring rain with leeches nipping at your ankles isn't an experience for the faint of heart, but it's a small price to pay for a visit to the remote mountain village of Walpolamulla--population: six--the site of an...

The making of modern-day Manila.(Photograph)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Manila, the capital of the Philippines, was all but flattened at the end of the Second World War. The war's conclusion saw independence granted, following a history of occupation by Spain, the USA and Japan. Most of...

Saving life to save lives.(Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity edited by Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein Oxford University Press, hb, 18.99 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This book begins--as such books often do--with a...

Expedition Naga: Diaries from the Hills in Northeast India 1921-1937; 2002-2006.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Expedition Naga: Diaries from the Hills in Northeast India 1921-1937; 2002-2006 by Peter von Ham and Jamie Saul ACC Editions, hb, pp296, 35 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 2006, a foray into the Naga Hills landed...

Pilgrimage to Mecca.(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Pilgrimage to Mecca by Lady Evelyn Cobbold First published in 1934. Most recent edition published by Arabian Publishing, hb, pp336, 25 pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of the most fascinating of women...

Kenya: A Country in the Making 1880-1940.(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Kenya: A Country in the Making 1880-1940 by Nigel Pavitt WW Norton, hb, pp320, 28 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a peerless collection of 720 photographs of Kenya from the earliest days of photography in East...

Lost Worlds of the Guiana Highlands.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Lost Worlds of the Guiana Highlands Stewart McPherson Redfern, hb, pp385, 29.99 [pounds sterling] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sandstone plateaus of the Guiana Highlands, guarded by vertical cliffs that rise as high as 1,000...

TOP 10 writer's reads.
November 1, 2008... 1. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (HarperCollins, 19.99 [pounds sterling]) By far the best escapist book of all time. I can still remember the excitement and expectancy with which I consumed it as an adolescent 2. The Stand by...

Pedalling the Pacific: two naked men in a pedal boat in the middle of the world's largest ocean--it sounds like a comedy sketch, but was part of a bold global circumnavigation attempt using only human power. Stevie Smith describes the equipment he and his companion employed on the Pacific leg of their epic 13-year voyage.(ESSENTIAL GEAR)
November 1, 2008... We're riding the roller coaster of a Pacific swell nearly 1,000 kilometres west of California. In a pedal boat. We've been pedalling against the wind all day, staring at the same patch of fathomless blue. We're hamsters on a wheel, going...

Ten of the best.(Buyers guide)
November 1, 2008... Some of the equipment used during Moksha's 1998-2000 Pacific voyage is no longer available. The selection featured here includes similar and updated products that are available now if you're thinking of pedalling the Pacific 1 Global...

Bean and gone: cultivated in China for millennia, the nutritious soya bean is one of nature's 'Swiss Army knives', having a multitude of uses in the global food industry. But worldwide demand has meant that large scale production in countries such as Brazil and Argentina has led to huge swathes of rainforest being lost and other adverse effects on the environment.
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It once seemed that soya's reputation as a health food was assured--for lowering cholesterol, providing calcium for those who couldn't drink cow's milk and helping women through the menopause. Similarly, it seemed as...

Weather report: don't let bad weather get you down--grab your camera, get out and photograph it. Meteorological mayhem can make for excellent images, says Keith Wilson. But keep an eye out for lightning.
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Geo photo Over the millennia, humanity has closely studied the shifting weather patterns in order to make decisions vital to basic survival and future progress. But over the past decade, as global climate change...

Romania's scars.(LETTER OF THE MONTH)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... I was interested to read Nick Smith's review of Donald Hall's classic book Romanian Furrow (Reviews, September 2008). The book provides a valuable record of a vanished rural way of life, albeit over-romanticising the poverty and ignorance that...

Social realities.(MAILBAG)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The article on Kilimanjaro's rivers in the October edition of Geographical (The spoils of Kilimanjaro) obviously raises some serious questions that can be raised about numerous parts of the world. Unfortunately, as...

Not so small after all.(MAILBAG)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... This is a small correction to Klaus Dodds's otherwise informative article on Nauru (Hotspot, September 2008). The Vatican City isn't twice as large as Nauru's 21 square kilometres. Its area is about 44 hectares. Klaus must have got his decimal...

Beginner's luck.(MAILBAG)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... I am a very recent subscriber to Geographical and only wish that I had discovered it earlier as I look forward to every issue. My first issue (June 2008) was waiting when I returned from an absolutely marvellous holiday, briefly in Nepal (must...

Gold's toxic legacy.(MAILBAG)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As a mining engineer, I was interested to read your piece on gold mining in the September issue of Geographical (All that glitters). I have assisted and visited mining operations throughout eastern South America...

Equal rights and wrongs.(MAILBAG)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Your excellent I'm a geographer careers supplement in the September issue of Geographical was, in my opinion, marred by the use of a world map as a logo that had the Arctic areas far too big and tropical areas far too small. [ILLUSTRATION...

Paul Rose.(I'M A GEOGRAPHER)(Biography)
November 1, 2008... Paul Rose 57, expedition leader, polar guide, professional diver and instructor, mountaineer, engineer and television presenter, was base commander of the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera Research Station for ten years and is a former vice...