"The year the world woke up"

"Not before time, the west awoke in 2006 to the vast economic, political and social implications of climate change - and twigged that it presented as many opportunities as threats to humanity."

The Guardian wraps up the year in climate change policy, research and commentary. In 2006,

• the weather wasn't as hot as 2005, but close enough: the eight hottest years ever recorded have been in the last decade
• the creator of the Gaia theory James Lovelock forecast "planetary wipeout"
• the tundra was found to be melting faster than previously thought, releasing vast amounts of methane into the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas that is 20 times as strong as carbon dioxide (much of the research on melting permafrost is done in Siberia; Russia has the largest patches of tundra)
  
• arctic sea ice was predicted to disappear by 2040
• the Gulf Stream was found to be slowing
• EU polls showed that voters consider climate change the second most important policy issue, right behind unemployment, with 93% of people wanting action taken
• the Stern Review on the economics of climate change was published
• in November 2006, the Global Carbon Project said carbon emissions continue to increase: a record 7.9bn tonnes of carbon passed into the atmosphere in 2005, compared with 6.8bn tonnes in 2000
• in one of the more tangible developments, the EU identified air traffic as a major culprit and plans to place a price on air travel carbon emissions ("the plans would add up to €8 (£5.40) to the price of a ticket for an internal EU flight and €40 for an international flight", according to the Guardian.)