Not sure I agree with that. Climate scientists around the world are pretty much agreed now that the planet is the warmest it's been for 400-500 years and, moreover, that it has warmed faster in the last 50 years than at any other time. Another fact is that CO2 levels have risen faster in the last 50 years than over the last few thousand, and are now the highest they've been since the last ice age by a long way (ice core samples pretty much prove that). Linking those two very definite trends is a theory, for sure, but one backed by a considerable amount of hard science.

Those are the facts. The speculation then begins. No-one knows how higher CO2 levels and the rapid recent warming will affect the planet in the longer term. There are many theories, but the climate is so complex than even the supercomputers used by various government meterological departments around the world cannot reliaby predict current weather, let alone how the climate might change. Add the complicating factor that weather patterns around the world tend to go in cycles of many decades, and it's all a big unknown. It's certainly too early to say that higher CO2 levels and higher global temperatures will affect climate a certain way.

In that respect I think exercising caution and doing more research is the best course of action for governments. Sadly some governments are doing neither. However, on the other end of the spectrum I think the doomsayers are getting a little ahead of themselves. The atmosphere's a hellishly complex body (As I learned with my chemistry thesis). It's simplistic to say higher CO2 levels are going to roast us unless we do something about them.

And no, I haven't seen the Al Gore documentary. I have no intention of seeing it -- he's deathly-dull and I don't need convincing about the science.

Anyway, I'm doing my bit. My 4runner gets better mileage than my old Jeep. I plant lots of trees when I can to make myself at least a little more carbon neutral. I bike around the city instead of driving, saving a lot of gas. And I don't drive around towing a jet-ski with a "Keep Tahoe Blue" sticker on my bumper. That really irks me!

So if you're worried, plant trees and buy a bike. Otherwise get on with your life as if nothing evern happened, just like most people do!

The planet will either finish us off in the next few hundred years or sort itself out. It's been through worse in its multi-billion year life than a few millennia of selfish modern civilization. Right now it's probably hailing the nearest asteroid to come obliterate us.