A PARADISE world of undiscovered species and tropical glaciers
in the mountains of New Guinea is disappearing faster than it
can be explored. So says a climate scientist who has discovered
that global warming there is happening 20 times faster than
previously thought. The highlands of the giant Asian island are
among the most isolated places on the planet. They are rarely
visited by local tribes and are virtually invisible to
satellites because they are constantly shrouded in cloud. Last
week, researchers from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, in west
London, announced the discovery of an entirely new genus of palm
trees in the Wondiwoi mountains in the west of the island, which
is part of Indonesia. And in February, the US group Conservation
International unveiled a host of new species of butterflies,
frogs, birds, plants and a tree kangaroo (pictured) found in the
mist-shrouded Foja mountains. All of this ... To continue
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