Two years to climate change meltdown

Once again, the G8 leaders have disappointed environmentalists by failing to set tough goals for CO2 emissions. Yet anyone who believes that the world can afford to drag its feet any further should make a trip to Australia, where an English scientist called Jill Cainey is in charge of the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station in north-west Tasmania. As Cainey puts it: "Whether you think there's a problem with climate change largely depends on whether you have water. If you have water, you don't think there's a problem. If you don't have water, you do."

Cape Grim lives up to its name. It falls 308 feet to a windswept sea and feels like the edge of the world, but