http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3869753.stm

"Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star's activity in the past.

They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer.

This trend is being amplified by gases from fossil fuel burning, they argue."

- Obviously our green house gases are fueling the sun's activity!!

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Even Farmers For Action Leader and Fuel Protester David Handley questioned the need for alternative fuels to that of oil.
And encouraged the government to act now rather when it's too late as oil runs out, especially considering the recent world oil rises due to low stocks being pumped out of the ground.

Nearly 2005 and we still rely on FOREIGN OIL, WHY???

There must be a cleaner and cheaper form of fuel?

wheel.

YES, The world is slowly dying.

I reckon nuclear power is the only option for the medium term. It's relatively friendly and semi-sustainable, and a far better choice than those hopeless wind turbines which can barely generate enough power to boil a flippin' kettle.
With careful design and implementation, nuclear power could see us safely through the development of better things, by which time most of us will be long dead....

Hi all,

regarding oil running out i think all the stories about it running out in 50 years is complete scaremongering. When my old man worked offshore in 1988 a geologist told him that there was oil for at least the next 290 years in the North sea, and that was what they knew of then.

I also remember reading an article where an oil expert said only about 1-3% of all oil reserves had been tapped and drilled so I reckon we can rely on it for a little while longer and it also gives us time to seek alternative energies, which i'm sure we will.

Andrew

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/18/1090089039422.html

"Brighter sun sheds light on global warming

The Earth is getting hotter because the sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1000 years, a study by Swiss and German scientists has found.

The findings suggest that increasing radiation from the sun may be partly responsible for recent global climate changes.

Research leader Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, said: "The sun is in a changed state. It is brighter than it was a few hundred years ago."

Dr Solanki said that the brighter sun and higher levels of greenhouse gases both contributed to the change in the Earth's temperature.

Average global temperatures have increased by about 0.2 degrees over the past 20 years and are widely believed to be responsible for new extremes in weather patterns."

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