Geoffrey Lean



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Area of interest: Science and the environment

Journals: The Daily Telegraph

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Website: Telegraph.co: Earth | Earth Comment | Geoffrey Lean

Blog: blogs.telegraph.co: Geoffrey Lean

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Career: Previously written for the Observer, New Statesman, Daily Mail, and the London Evening Standard

Current position/role:
 * Environment editor Geoffrey Lean to leave Independent on Sunday - Lean to leave Sindy after 16 years to join Daily Telegraph - Mark Sweney, guardian.co.uk, 8th June 2009


 * also writes/has written for: Grist online magazine (leading online source of environmental news and analysis) > Geoffrey Lean

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Controversy/Criticism: Seed Today (Monsanto's website) Independent's Geoffrey Lean Accused of 'Misrepresentation' Over GM Soya Yield, Dr. Barney Gordon, 15th May 2008

Awards/Honours: Martha Gelhorn Award for investigative journalism, 2002. Voted "most impressive environmental journalist in Britain" seven times in an annual poll among his colleagues

Scoops: London Press Club Awards 'scoop of the year', 2000; British Press Awards, 2001

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Books & Debate:

 * Rich World, Poor World OCLC 6091462, 1978
 * Dimensions of Need : An Atlas of Food and Agriculture, December 1995
 * Chernobyl, The End of the Nuclear Dream (co-author) general editor of
 * The Atlas of the Environment (general editor)

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The Daily Telegraph:
Column info: "Geoffrey Lean pioneered the coverage of green issues long before they became fashionable and has won Scoop of the Year in the British Press Awards and the Martha Gelhorn Award for investigative journalism." Daily Telegraph

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Role: Consulting editor for Environment, and responsible for a weekly column in the Saturday Telegraph, features and a blog

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Website: Geoffrey Lean

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Articles: 2011

 * triumph of the inconvenient truth'' - Derek Bryce-Smith's warnings about lead in petrol made him a public health hero - 30th July
 * 10 inches from oblivion'' - A thin layer of topsoil stands between food and famine - 16th July
 * lines for the Green Belt'' - New planning proposals threaten to unleash more building on agricultural land, while in Australia the government is proposing to shoot feral camels to reduce global warming - 9th July
 * a brock and a hard place'' - A badger cull would inflame passions on both sides - 2nd July
 * makes me eat my words'' - The Mayor of London is doing something green that is truly revolutionary and yet almost totally unpublicised - 25th June
 * countryside to serve the country'' - Something pretty dramatic is needed to preserve what is left of the wonders that once thronged our broad acres - 17th June
 * can't go on pouring water down the drain'' - A little water shock provides a sharp reminder of its importance - 11th June
 * should all have a beef with factory farming'' - Antibiotics are widely used on livestock, and humans are paying the price - 4th June
 * Festival: For the greenest nation, look west'' - Yesterday, representatives of some 70 communities, companies, councils and public bodies met at the Hay Festival to report on greening their operations - 28th May
 * oceans are emptying fast'' - We must grasp one more chance to reverse the over-exploitation of dwindling fish stocks - 21st May
 * David Cameron the eco-warrior lost his way?'' - Westminster’s polluted air is already thick with cries of betrayal - 14th May
 * bursts into flames'' - As these damp islands swelter in temperatures that have outstripped the Sahara, cookouts have been one of the causes of the wildfires - 7th May
 * in the air for Britain'' - The capital that once led the world in cleaning up its air threatens to become notorious for pollution again - 23rd April
 * Gulf of Mexico is not as clean as they say'' - The task of assessing the true toll of the Deepwater Horizon blow-out is only now starting - 16th April
 * city living more civilised'' - Joan Clos hopes to bring the success story of Barcelona to the growing cities of the developing world - 9th April
 * make national parks that work'' - The South Downs National Park has formally come into being, 64 years after being recommended by an official report - 2nd April
 * greening of the Valleys'' - The landscape recalled by the narrator in Richard Llewellyn's classic book is nowhere to be seen - 25th March
 * nuclear future – proceed with caution'' - It is too early to work out what precisely has caused the apparent partial meltdowns in Japan - 19th March
 * earthquake: Nuclear power under fire'' - Until the explosion at Fukushima, nuclear power was enjoying a renaissance as a 'clean' source of energy. Now its future looks a lot less secure - 14th March
 * cut that puts us all at risk'' - The earthquake in Japan is a timely reminder of the value of Unesco in co-ordinating early warning systems - 12th March
 * that green means growth'' - Green growth is the Government's biggest priority. You could have fooled me - 5th March
 * Zealand earthquake: the vengeance of Mother Nature'' - Whatever the cause of the increase in disasters, humanity has made their impact far worse - 26th February
 * principles turn a big profit'' - Ray Anderson realised that you could run a big business both profitably and in an environmentally responsible way - 19th February
 * bomb factory in our back yard'' - The so-called Mox plant could well go rogue - 11th February
 * groups lost in the woods'' - Even though environmental pressure groups successfully routed previous attempts to sell off the forests, this time they have been nowhere to be seen - 5th February
 * Spelman loses her way in the woods'' - Forestry Commission sell-off might actually double the Government's bill - 29th January
 * this Cameron's new role model?'' - The government has been accused of grabbing arbitrary power on a scale worthy of the tyrannical Tudor himself - 22nd January
 * letting our flood defences down'' - Half of the housing built in Britain since the Second World War has been put up on flood plains - 15th January
 * poor harvest away from chaos'' - Millions of the world’s poorest people and the state of the global economy are threatened by the food price rises - 8th January
 * flu is not to be sneezed at'' - The virus has an unrivalled ability to spring surprises - 1st January
 * many e-books to spare a tree?'' - The Kindle is provoking furious debate among better-read American environmentalists - 1st January



Articles: 2010

 * last Barbara Ward gets the credit'' - While other environmentalists frequently inspired despair, Barbara Ward wrote of "a duty to hope" - 18th December
 * climate change summit: Back from the brink'' - Less than a day after the international summit in Cancun hit deadlock, a breakthrough agreement was reached amid scenes of tearful jubilation - 13th December
 * speaks louder than hot air'' - A new, more effective, strategy to avert dangerous climate change is under way - 11th December
 * we end up with no deal at all?'' - Confidence in multilateral negotiations on climate change is taking a hit - 4th December


 * chance’ in the snakepit'' - As climate talks start in Cancun, negotiators are filled with sense of foreboding - 29th November
 * man’s car is electrifying'' - Shai Agassi is almost certainly doing more to avert disastrous climate change - 27th November
 * can't avoid another Deepwater disaster'' - In the desperate hunt for oil, danger and human error make a deadly cocktail - 10th November
 * giant victory for the world'' - The residents of San Francisco have been waiting for years for a really big reason to celebrate - 6th November
 * sell our woodland walks'' - The Government's proposals amount to the biggest change of land ownership in Britain since the Second World War - 30th October
 * a price on nature'' - Hiware Bazar, a tiny Indian village, has shown that green measures can make economic as well as ecological sense - 23rd October
 * the poorest? It might just work'' - When money is worthily spent on poor people, the poorest generally lose out - 25th September
 * big problem with water'' - We are two nations when it comes to the weather - 18th September
 * up for dear old Badger?'' - The public is besotted with these animals, despite the scourge of TB - 16th September
 * Prince Charles finish what he has started?'' - The Prince of Wales should provide an example of where it has really cost him to go green - 4th September
 * Rajendra Pachauri is damaging the world'' - The IPCC's head should quit to avoid harming the global warming cause further - 1st September
 * Cameron runs the greenest government ever? Tell it to the birds'' - Although the Coalition is likely to come good on its commitment to combat climate change, it is less clear that it cares about the rest of the environment - 31st July
 * it badger-hunting season?'' - The debate over whether to cull Britain's badger population is as volatile as ever - 24th July
 * Charles and the countryside paupers'' - Businesses encouraged to help the countryside have come up with a poor response - 19th July
 * dig deep in Iceberg Alley'' - BP's ill-fated well was far from the deepest in the Gulf: others reach down twice as far, to more than 10,000ft - 17th July
 * a glass to beery biogas'' - In a national first, a brewery in Suffolk is planning to turn its leftover hops, grain, yeast and food waste into biogas - 10th July
 * countryside will be the poorer'' - This week's abolition of the Commission for Rural Communities will make a big difference to some of the poorest, most deserving people in the country - 3rd July
 * was worth taking swine flu seriously'' - Swine flu gives influenza a good name – and health protection a bad one - 3rd July
 * face a battle in California'' - Californians will have their say on global warming at the ballot box - 26th June
 * we really be short of water?'' - Another summer, another call for hosepipe bans. It's time we started paying a sensible price for this precious commodity - 26th June
 * armed and ready. . .'' - A week of high drama and much emotion lies ahead - 19th June
 * rises should be used to boost the low-carbon economy'' - As George Osborne will have to raise taxes, he should use the increase to make Britain greener - 12th June
 * nature saves money, too'' - Preserving existing wild places such as forests or wetlands costs 10 times less than trying to replace them when they are gone - 5th June
 * BP oil spill is now a catastrophe'' - The failure of BP's 'top kill' means there is no end in sight to the misery of Louisiana's people and wildlife - 1st June
 * farming, Prince Charles knows that the old ways are the new ways'' - Techniques used at Highgrove might seem anachronistic, but they are in fact the most sustainable practices in agriculture - 29th May
 * Cameron takes one step forwards, two steps back on energy'' - Hidden in the list of cuts last Monday was the axing of grants to encourage families to install renewable technologies - 29th May
 * phones: Is there an epidemic on hold?'' - The world’s most important study into the dangers of mobile-phone use raises serious worries - 22nd May
 * Cameron's coalition is off to a green start'' - The coalition agreement between the two parties has no less than 20 environmental commitments, nearly twice as many as in any other area - 15th May
 * Gulf of Mexico oil spill: the crude facts of an oil disaster'' - BP's belching oil well in the Gulf of Mexico comes at the worst possible time and place. Its effect will be devastating - 5th May
 * oil slick is a disaster for world climate deal'' - Offshore oil drilling could become unacceptable, eliminating Barack Obama's bargaining tool with the Republicans - 1st May
 * Election 2010: Political parties are greener than ever – with one exception'' - There is one party that fully endorses the rejectionist case on global warming - 1st May (General Election 2010)
 * silent, green revolution'' - All the major parties are signed up to transforming Britain into a green, low-carbon economy to boost growth, as well as to combat climate change - 24th April
 * Europe seen the light on renewable energy?'' - Geoffrey Lean looks at how likely a Europe powered entirely by renewable energy could be - 10th April
 * must not neglect their heartland'' - It is important to avoid the development of 'broadband deserts' - 10th April
 * election 2010: What happened to the green Tories?'' - Politicians now have to have credible green policies – just as they do defence ones – to be electable - 3rd April
 * belongs here – not in the garden'' - Ninety four per cent of Britain's lowland raised bogs have been severely damaged - 27th March
 * GM war in Europe starts here'' - Brussels bureaucrats want to spread GM crops throughout Europe, against the will of most of its people - 13th March
 * to make the most of rubbish'' - A rubbish revolution is under way in Bali - 6th March
 * pays a high price for its success'' - The infrastructure of Bali is buckling under the strain of foreign tourism - 6th March
 * drama, just a green revolution'' - In Bali, 130 governments quite rightly agreed that low-carbon growth offers a better future than the oil-soaked present - 27th February
 * gets the nod to kill whales again'' - Conservationists fear that a deal with Japan will lead to other countries starting hunts in their coastal waters -20th February
 * activists are losing their fire'' - Today's environmental pressure groups tend to be pusillanimous, policy-wonking and petrified -20th February
 * we want to ignore climate change and risk losing all this?'' - There is a growing conviction that the cost of ignoring climate change will be far greater than of tackling it now - 13th February
 * need to cool down climate row'' - Lurid insults and threats from the extremes on both sides of the climate debate wing around the blogosphere - but there must be a way forward - 6th February
 * change: sailing through the perfect storm'' - Tomorrow is the deadline for countries to sign up to the Copenhagen Accord - 30th January
 * TB: An ill wind blows for Mr Badger'' - Wales is planning a badger cull - despite evidence suggesting that this will not reduce bovine TB - 23rd January
 * gas could provide a fossil-fuel miracle'' - New drilling and refining techniques for natural gas have opened up a vast new supply - 16th January
 * time to get back to the land'' - Over the last 20 years, the proportion of food that we grow for ourselves has slumped. Finally, the Government has taken note - 9th January
 * losing the riches of the world'' - Species are now going extinct at between 1,000 and 10,000 times the natural rate.The consequences will be disastrous - 2nd January



Articles: 2009

 * pressure groups lose the plot'' - Many climate change activists remain sunk in anti-Americanism - 26th December
 * as a city can still lead the way'' - The climate change summit may have floundered, but environmentally-friendly cities give us grounds for hope - 26th December
 * world at war over its future'' - The Copenhagen summit ended with chaos and an accord which leaves much to be desired - 21st December
 * climate summit: activists who contributed nothing but obstruction'' - If I ever see another singing, dancing, sloganising polar bear, I shall do my best to melt its ice-floe - 18th December
 * dark and stormy nights'' - Within two decades Denmarket could get all of its electricity from renewable sources - 12th December
 * plan to make climate change worth your while'' - There are two very different shades of attitude to the environment in the Conservative Party but the opportunistic side has won out - 5th December
 * Prince of the rainforests and scourge of climate change'' - Deforestation worldwide could be cut by a quarter within five years at the cost of what Goldman Sachs is expected to pay in bonuses this year - 28th November (see: Climate change: summary)
 * sign that slanging match is cooling off'' - It is clear that people on both sides of the global warming debate at times abuse their opponents - and may even massage the data - 25th November
 * the natterjack toads go nuclear?'' - Britain's largest colony of natterjack toads - a rare and highly protected species - is holding up plans for a nuclear power station - 21st November
 * floods: there's more where that came from'' - The flooding in Cumbria is part of a pattern of weather which shows that global warming is occurring faster than anyone expected - 21st November
 * deadly 'forests’ without trees'' - A new report reveals the boomerang effect of direct assaults on nature, as infectious diseases wing back to plague the people responsible - 21st November
 * Barack Obama kill the climate pirates?'' - It was all the more surprising to find on the Hill that Obama has a good chance eventually of getting a climate bill - 14th November
 * the English countryside'' - The South Downs have become a national park - 14th November
 * unsung heroes who risk their lives to save the planet'' - Many of the green activists who make the shortlist of the Goldman Environmental Prize have endured death threats, assassination attempts, imprisonment and even torture - 7th November
 * spill means hairy days in San Francisco Bay'' - the citizens of San Francisco have a novel approach to cleaning up a minor oil spill - 7th November
 * economists recognise the climate change threat'' - They may not be well known for their green credentials, but economists are facing up to the threat of climate change - 7th November
 * official: temperatures are rising'' - Statisticians with no bias have found that the world is still getting warmer - 31st October
 * time to pluck the golden goose and get on with green taxes'' - Green taxation could have a massive effect on the efficiency of energy use, and the Tories should take note - 31st October
 * boys are turning into girls'' - Gender-bending chemicals are largely exempt from new EU regulations - 24th October
 * dioxide: we're already over the safe limit'' - Concentrations passed the limit in 1987 - 24th October
 * Brown saves the world from climate change (again)'' - The Prime Minister is trying to persuade Barack Obama and other world leaders to seize the moment and clinch a deal at the Copenhagen summit on climate change - 20th October
 * sets on the rooftop revolution'' - I'm afraid to say that the solar-powered chickens may be fluttering home to roost - 17th October
 * is quick to spin on rural broadband'' - Calls for fast broadband to be extended into the countryside seems to have galvanised BT into rhetoric and spin - 17th October
 * figures on global warming simply don't add up'' - Almost all climatologists expect warming to continue in the long term, but – because of natural fluctuations – they disagree about the immediate future - 17th October
 * broadband is a 'digital desert’ that blights Britain'' - He’s the ultimate pillar of the establishment who is frequently a thorn in its flesh, the privileged product of centuries of selective breeding who has led a popular movement against genetic modification - 10th October
 * David Cameron be green in government?'' - David Cameron has instisted that that the environment features strongly in preparations for power - 3rd October
 * shoots in Brighton at the Labour conference'' - Well, the sun is shining on Brighton, if not exactly on Labour’s political prospects - 30th September
 * change needed at Copenhagen'' - Cumbersome at the best of times, UN procedures seem unable to bear the weight of an issue as important, urgent, and complicated as climate change - 26th September
 * wizard idea at the Empire State'' - Geoffrey Lean is impressed that the Empire State building is turning into an eco-friendly exemplar - 26th September
 * launches a green revolution'' - Being environmentally friendly makes good business sense - 19th September
 * change campaigners should not have fixated on carbon dioxide'' - If climate negotiations 20 years ago concentrated on low-hanging fruits, the fight against global warming would have been more successful - 19th September
 * and cancer: the plot thickens'' - You might as well ask to buy condoms in the Vatican as ask a mobile phone salesman for a low radiation mobile phone handset - 12th September
 * this savage Fox toe the line?'' - Rupert Murdoch went green just over two years ago. Will his media empire do the same - 12th September
 * your carbon footprint doing?'' - Cutting emissions of carbon dioxide makes sense even if you don’t believe in climate change - 5th September
 * wave of discovery – and extinction'' - It is predicted that half of all current forms of life may have vanished by the end of this century - 15th August
 * is more than small potatoes'' - Study after study show that organic techniques can provide much more food per acre in developing countries than conventional chemical-based agriculture - 8th August
 * can't ignore litter, even in space'' - Discarded rocket stages, dropped spanners, even chunks of deep-frozen astronaut urine whizz around the globe at up to 25,000 miles per hour - 8th August
 * food gets a raw deal from the FSA'' - The FSA ignored pesticides, the main health issue, in its report on organic food - 31st July
 * still going to be a barbecue climate'' - Our barbecue summer may be a damp squib, but the climate is still getting hotter - 31st July
 * invisible killer in our cities'' - The pea-soupers are no more, but an estimated 3,000 Londoners a year die from particles emitted from car exhausts - 31st July
 * Porrit, the greenest of bluebloods'' - Despite his government role, Jonathon Porritt has been a thorn in ministers' sides for almost a decade - 25th July
 * end to the hot air over wind power?'' - The Government has just announced measures to improve siting decisions for wind farms: they are long overdue - 25th July
 * signs on nuclear power'' - When in trouble the nuclear industry has traditionally sought government support and tried to stifle rival technologies. That seems to be happening again - 18th July
 * 'revolution' left blowing in the wind'' - Lord Mandelson and Ed Miliband's measures yesterday are too little and too late - 16th July
 * Whitehall hates solar panels'' - Officials dislike the idea of microgeneration because it gives someone else the power to take decisions - 11th July
 * Barack Obama save us from hell?'' - What is the opposite of déjà vu? Whatever it is, I experienced it yesterday in a dingy meeting room beneath London's US Embassy talking to Barack Obama's principal adviser about the chance of international agreement to combat climate change - 10th July
 * Gordon Brown save the Earth from climate change?'' - A deal to halve global emissions of carbon dioxide by 2050 is supposed to be agreed in September - 4th July
 * have always been green'' - Right-wing environmentalism reaches back to Edmund Burke, the father of conservatism, who saw society as "a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are yet unborn" - 19th June
 * green shoots mean business'' - environmental campaigners are no longer anti-growth - 12th June (Debut article for The Daily Telegraph)



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