Talking Point articles
Talking Point articles RSS feedHealth and the urban environment: revolutions revisited
May 13, 2009
It is time for a new and sustainable revolution in urban health that operates on a global scale, says Gordon McGranahan of IIED.
Monitoring Greenland's melting
Apr 8, 2009
Recently the Greenland ice sheet has undergone record levels of melting. Marco Tedesco examines the last thirty years with a particular focus on what happened in 2008.
A Sea Change: communicating complex environmental science to the public
Mar 25, 2009
Fresh from completing A Sea Change, a feature-length film documentary on ocean acidification, Barbara Ettinger explores how to explain complicated science without boring or confusing your audience.
IPY: from fuel cuts to the deep-sea octopus
Mar 4, 2009
As International Polar Year draws to a close, David Carlson details how the massive two-year research programme has gone and what will happen next.
Wind turbine blades: the bigger, the better?
Feb 10, 2009 1 comment
Increasing the size of wind turbines brings additional engineering challenges, says Ole Thomsen.
Controversy strikes in Antarctica
Jan 28, 2009
Suspended iron fertilization experiment is to go ahead
Communicating complexity: it ain’t simple
Jan 21, 2009
Tom Webb outlines the complex role of the 21st century academic.
Climate change and microbes: influence in numbers
Dec 10, 2008
Climate change models must include microbial activities, says John Dupré.
Carbon offsetting - a way of avoiding emissions reductions?
Nov 5, 2008 5 comments
Does offsetting promote low-carbon lifestyles or relieve guilt and encourage more emissions, asks Lorraine Whitmarsh.
WindPower 2.0: technology rises to the challenge
Oct 21, 2008 2 comments
As wind turbines grow larger and reach more remote locations, they’ll need new technologies and systems to keep them running, says Peter Clive.
Ice shelves come in many guises
Oct 6, 2008 1 comment
It’s vital to obtain enough data from the Earth’s remaining ice shelves to assess their risk of becoming unstable, says Angelika Humbert.
The IPCC report: what the lead authors really think
Sep 17, 2008 4 comments
How much did views on the IPCC Fourth Assessment get diluted? Ann Henderson-Sellers considers the results of a survey.
UK renewables – how not to do it
Sep 2, 2008 1 comment
Quota-based systems are not as good as feed-in tariffs at promoting renewable energy, and may even have provoked public opposition, says David Elliott
Satellites keep tabs on the environment
Aug 5, 2008
Satellite images can supply visual proof of environmental damage caused by man, such as changes in deer habitat use caused by oil and gas drilling and the sediment plumes thrown up by fishing trawlers, says John Amos of SkyTruth.
Glaciers in the balance
Jul 23, 2008
Defining the rate at which the world’s glaciers are shrinking is not as easy as you’d think, says Graham Cogley.
Winds of change
Jul 9, 2008
Andrew Garrad on the future of wind energy, including how people may one day live in offshore wind turbines.
Will climate change stir up the Southern Ocean?
Jun 20, 2008
Wouter Lefebvre and Hugues Goosse take a look at the effects of climate change on the Southern Ocean.
Climate change: the thin end of the wedge
Jun 11, 2008
Stephen Pacala on how emissions have changed since his "stabilization wedges" paper and his new work on calculating fair national emissions caps.
MIT spreads its bets on energy solutions
May 28, 2008 1 comment
The MIT Energy Initiative is building a portfolio of long-term sustainable energy solutions but right now, solar is "the long pole in the tent".