Any intelligent person knows the Earth is flat and if you walk too far, there is danger of falling off and hurtling into outer space, or, maybe it is hurtling into downward space or something like that. In modern times, the flat-Earth people have become the anti-climate change folk who believe fervently the Earth is just like it always has been and there are no dangers posed by cars and other polluting agents. Prime Minister Gordon Brown blasted the nay-sayers in no uncertain terms: “With only days to go before Copenhagen, we mustn’t be distracted by the beind-the-times, anti science, anti-Earth climate change sceptics.”

I gather from his strong words that he actually believes the earth’s climate is changing. Gee, as I recall, in my youth back in the thirties, ships were sailing easily through the Northwest Passage.