How about my footprint on your magniloquent rear?: Joseph Conrad, a great novelist who learned English as an adult and developed a foreigner’s nuanced appreciation of English words, was one of the first writers of the 20th century to notice that certain terms seem to leap from the shadows and suddenly dominate what we read and say … The big word of 2007 was, for sure, “footprint.” That was and is, as Conrad would say, the word of the time. It’s an ordinary old word that has completed a long, tedious journey from everyday language to Word Heaven, where it’s now in regular use by scientists, politicians, high-class journalists and all-around freelance moralists. National Post

Giant newt, tiny frog identified as most at risk: A giant Chinese salamander that predates Tyrannosaurus rex and the world’s smallest frog are among a group of extremely rare amphibians identified by scientists on Monday as being in need of urgent help to survive. The Olm, a blind salamander that can survive for 10 years without food, and a purple frog that spends most of its life four metres underground are also among the 10 most endangered amphibians drawn up by the Zoological Society of London. “These species are the ‘canaries in the coalmine’ — they are highly sensitive to factors such as climate change and pollution, which lead to extinction, and are a stark warning of things to come,” said EDGE head Jonathan Baillie. Reuters

Yakutsk: Journey to the coldest city on earth: At minus 5C, the cold is quite refreshing and a light hat and scarf are all that’s required to keep warm. At minus 20C, the moisture in your nostrils freezes, and the cold air starts making it difficult not to cough. At minus 35C, the air will be cold enough to numb exposed skin quickly, making frostbite a constant hazard. And at minus 45C, even wearing glasses gets tricky: the metal sticks to your cheeks and will tear off chunks of flesh when you decide to remove them. I know this because I’ve just arrived in Yakutsk, a place where friendly locals warn you against wearing spectacles outdoors. Yakutsk is a remote city in Eastern Siberia (population 200,000) famous for two things: appearing in the classic board game Risk, and the fact that it can, convincingly, claim to be the coldest city on earth. Independent

Arctic melt may outstrip prediction: The language of ice in Antarctica gains clarity at about 500 feet up. It’s from here, glimpsed through the just-open tailgate of a low-flying aircraft, that the nuance of its vocabulary, baffling in the scientific reports, may be heard. The soft fragility of the floes, a translucent crust over the bays. The booming magnificence of a glacier, its echo extending to an ice shelf that calves icebergs into the sea. Isolated islands of ice, their ballast glowing emerald green under the water, pushing loudly into the subdued scatter of pack ice. Screaming crevasses fracturing the ice sheet, revealing unfathomable blue in its depths. The Age

EU nations chafe as the climate change bill comes in: Less than a year after challenging the world to a race to stop global warming, European Union nations are bickering over who should carry the biggest burden in the EU’s push to cut greenhouse gases. Now starkly aware of the cost their commitments could imply, the 27 nations have been lobbying the European Commission hard as it prepares to unveil Wednesday a package of measures meant to achieve Europe’s climate goals. Whether it is Germany with its auto industry, nuclear minded France, coal-dependent central Europe or the environment-friendly Nordic nations, all know they will struggle to meet targets the Commission is ready to impose. AFP