Doha

O Tempora O Mores

I can remember taking part in offensive operations in Doha about half a century ago.

The climate was pretty hot then as I recall!

I can't understand people who try to argue that the planet isn't warming, when the evidence that it is indeed doing just that is there for all to see. Sea levels are rising, and that is because the planet is warming. It may not be happening as rapidly as some people say, but that's not the important thing - it is happening.

All the arguing and posturing in the world isn't going to alter the fact that we're in a period of climate change. The arguments can centre around what the causes are, but nobody in their right mind can deny that we are experiencing climate change, and with it a rise in sea levels.

The stupid argument that it's all a ruse by politicians to justify extra taxes is just that - a very stupid argument. Over the past few years we have seen the effects of climate change in our own country - flooding on an unprecedented scale.

We simply don't know enough about how our planet works to be able to make accurate predictions about the future. We know for a fact that there have been many previous warming periods, and as I said earlier, one of them that lasted 500 years raised sea levels by 20 metres. We have no idea what caused that particular warming, but we would certainly have known all about a 20 metre sea level rise, had we been living 14,000 years ago.

What has happened in the past can happen again, and rather than waste time with silly arguments about which scientists are getting what right we might do better to work on what we're going to do to deal with the consequences these changes might bring.

I was listening to Today, this morning, on Radio 4, when a little out-of-the-ordinary 'snippet' from the usually desk-bound-presenter Evan Davies ... he was reporting back to HQ 'bout his experiences in downtown Monrovia [it's the capital city of Liberia, in Africa], got me a-thinkin'.

It is a fact, that the very poor Liberian people that Evan encountered on his travels,are able to exist without any electricity 'cos there is none!

Therefore,Global Warming or what-ever-you-want-to-call-it, will never make the headlines in the poorer places on planet Earth.

It doesn't matter whether it is called climate change or global warming, the earth's climate and therefore it's temperature has been rising for the last 20-30000 years.

No doubt it was the invention of fire by ancient man that started it all!!!!!!!!!!!

There has been periods of cooling periods certainly in the northern hemisphere particularly in the 14th and 18th.centuries.

I personally think a lot of the doom and gloom is hype by people with vested interests both scientists and big business.

"these far-off God-forsaken lands "

Just remember that in California (or even in leafy Sussex) Scotland is a far off God forsaken land.