i WRITE in response to Neville Gardner: As for the thousands of scientists at the Oregon Petition, has he actually validated the list, as it has been criticised for its lack of verification, with pranksters successfully submitting the names of Charles Darwin, a member of the Spice Girls and characters from Star Wars and getting them briefly included on the list. And of the 9000 people signed (without any verification) only 39 state they are climatologists. So, this might be the only joke worth laughing at.

Since industrialisation in the mid-18th century, carbon dioxide concentrations have increased by about 47 per cent, based on measurements from Cape Grim and on-air samples from Antarctic ice at Law Dome. These increases are principally caused by human activities such as fossil fuel consumption and various agricultural practices.