Onionman

The words.

You sound terribly irritated by what seems to be a pretty calm question. Perhaps, rather than "writing it all out again" you could just link to the posts where you've previously answered the query. Not everyone is a search tool god.

I think it is a skip.

Maybe they'll do what western companies would do and licence the technology for a fee. It would be the rational thing to do given the Chinese live on the same planet as us.

No need for legislation: the fertility rate worldwide is dropping. For information, 2.3 is the replacement rate, where the population starts to shrink. In the UK we've been below that for some time.

Carl Sagan: "I try not to think with my gut."

What evidence do you have that the current rapid change in CO2 level and the associated rapid climate change is similar to previous natural changes in climate. I find that people who take the "there's always climate change" line tend to be in denial but choose to dress it up as a scientific observation suggesting that the current situation has happened before, when it hasn't. It might seem like a generalisation but my observation seems always to be on the money.

Yes, you are missing something indeed. Nuclear waste is perfectly manageable given political will (and that involves incuding the cost of managing waste in the cost of electricity). Ignore the zillion year storage claims; you can transform waste into much shorter half-life elements. Also bids for offshore wind farms recently hit record lows (in short, they are economically not just viable but cheap). Solar goes from strength to strength with improvements in efficiency and reduced cost of manufacture. So there are zero emission generation methods.

I'm interested what makes you think that. I'm also interested why you use inverted commas around the word "emergency". Do I detect a note of scepticism about the science of climate change?

^^^^^ The other

Loved the programme: we've watched the episodes as they were broadcast, which is very unusual in our house. The only weakness I felt it had was that while he mentioned having met great people, the overall tone of the programme was one of solitude. I'm not asking for hours of tales of people on the cut but a couple of shots of him chatting on the bank, with no audible conversation, would have softened the impression that he didn't talk to anyone for six months. However, he's the guy with a TV series, so I bow to the fact that he was probably aiming for that mood. I did particularly like the fact that he didn't make it out to be all plain sailing. A good watch.

Thank you! Just ordered a pair for Mrs Onionman. I'll be having words if they are no good.

Language evolves.

Errrrrr?

I was taught the metric system at school and I'm 56. My 62 year old brother says the same. I can cope with either but prefer metric as it's simple and straightforward. I bought a guide to woodworking with a router and the paragraphs showing how to calculate offsets when you're using a 3/16" bit on a curve of radius 1 5/8" with a baseplate of width 3 7/8" is insane. Move onto a consistent and logical system for heaven's sake. This is such a dull argument. People who suggest there's something "better" about imperial are just showing how unwilling they are to change their minds and move with the times; thisgs were better in them olden days. No they weren't. And when you have people of 56 and 62 who understand the metric system, how old do you have to be to make the utterly tedious claim that you don't understand? People choose not to understand as though it makes them look clever in some way. It doesn't. It makes them look daft, hidebound and reactionary.