Watch James May’s Toy Stories on iPLayer before it goes. He retries his railway run that failed last year. This time, there is a hydrogen fuel cell powered train set.

I still reckon a global 'shield' that absorbs radiation from the sun that could somehow have its energy transferred safely to earth would be ideal. If it could store and emit it away from earth on demand we could also use it as a shield from rogue asteroids.

That's just how my mind works though, I'd need clever people to make it work.

So... Lawson calls for the government to grow up and does it by writing in the single most bigoted, prurient, self-interested, puerile, childish newspaper in Britain.

Right Proper Genius® again.

There are issues far beyond just global temperature - the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the oceans is leading to acidification, which is harmful to life. For example, it is predicted that by 2050 the oceans will be so corrosive that unprotected shellfish will simply dissolve.

I do love disaster theorists. Whenever it turns out whatever apocalyptic vision of the future they're pushing might not actually be an inevitability and in fact isn't uniformly supported by the science, they come up with a nice shiny new one. Is it possible bad things will happen on the earth in our lifetime? Very much so. Is that thing easily predictable? Absolutely not. We can't even get tomorrow's weather right more than 50% of the time for pity's sake.

Everything in nature changes all the time. They are not predictable. Anyone who comes out and says 'the planet will be doing THIS in 50 years time' deserves to be taken out the back and savaged by wild dogs.

We must do what is sensible - produce the least we need to, consume the least we can afford to. But simply because this is a patently good idea, not because of someone waving their arms in the air proclaiming we're all doomed. People have seen far too many 'the sky is falling in' theories fall flat on their faces to just take whatever they are told at face value any more.

Bird flu, global 'warming', 'climate change', pig flu, BSE.... Now 'acid seas'?

There's only so many times you can sell the same bloke the same snake oil.

Jon

Aye, fools. I only ever buy it on BOGOF offers.

Science changes to meet new data, always has done, always will do. It is established that increasing CO2 levels in the ocean lead to acidification. It is also established that acid is corrosive. How fast this might occur is of course up for debate, but what's not is that acidic oceans will kill certain kinds of life, and could have a dramatic impact on our own food sources from the oceans.

No, it isn't. It is theorised and modelled. That is not 'established' in any strict scientific sense because it presents no hard evidence. The conundrum in this and many other cases is the same - the only way the theories will actually be proved is if they happen. At which point, it's too late to stop them, obviously. This is where my stance comes from - I believe little of the arguments because a lot of them are founded on frankly dodgy science. I do believe living in as 'lightweight' a way as possible is a good thing all and of itself. And thus I rather resent people trying to scare me into doing so, especially when their arguments are often.. shoddy. I find it astonishingly patronising. Like telling a child if they don't go to sleep the monster under the bed will get them.


Well duh. It's poor science to take a list of things which have been proven and say that therefore this thing that hasn't been proven will happen. You can't assume causality. That's my main problem in fact with certain... arguments. They don't seem to recognise the difference between plausible theory and fact.


Well that's kind of the $10m (literally) question, isn't it. If it happens tomorrow, we're [LIFTED]. if it happen in 10,000 years we probably don't have to worry right now. Until that debate is settled, it's hardly something we should base global policy on now is it?


Unarguable, but also not really helpful. If I drink heavily tomorrow, the day after I will be hung over. This also is unarguable. Does this mean I am definitely going to drink heavily tomorrow, or not?


We do that anyway by massively and wastefully overfishing them.

Jon

Turns out that everything you posted is bollocks:



http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/short ... on-it.html

Oh noes!! something that might contradict the doomsday scenarios.. quick unleash the hounds to try and discredit it and keep our funding (I may be being a bit cynical here )

The oceans are facing other more pressing threats than merely the acidification.
And yes, if we make a mess of the oceans, then the rest of us are pretty well stuffed in short order.
We're slowly killing the seas, by varying degrees, and it will come back to bite us one way or another.

Anyone else disappointed that the sun spot article didn't mention people ice skating on the Thames? I thought it was obligatory in those articles.