"I apologise for returning to the ever-lasting theme of global warming. My contention was that our resources are better spent in preparing for the inevitable, than attempting to prevent it. It does seem unlikely that human activity was the major cause of the cold mini-cycle starting at the Conquest and the warm one starting some 500 years ago. Our sister planet Mars is also going through a warming phase. I wonder why? In 200 hundred years time the UK's main crop could be GM modified rice grown in the salt marshes of the Thames estuary. We shall have to learn to use chopsticks!

David Fuller's view I agree and am only interested in what most of us would regard as enlightened preventions. For instance, our costal cities need better flood defences because they have been and will continue to be damaged by the occasional severe storm, even if global warming proves to be negligible. I have long said what should be obvious - polluting the planet is irresponsible, not least because it is not only our home but also the home of everything that lives on earth. Education and technology are long-term solutions for many negative impacts on the planet which we have had, not least in terms of pollution and climate change. Unfortunately, we have exterminated or marginalised too many other species and there is no realistic solution to this problem.