"At this moment in time, what happens here today and changes as we go along, that is part of life\'s learning and part of your inner beliefs." Yes, you read that right; and no, it doesn\'t make sense. But then Glen Hoddle, from whose lips, ten years ago, these pearls were strung like a poorly graded necklace, was never a wordsmith, he was a footballer and, allegedly, a football manager. You didn\'t understand him but it didn\'t worry you because the only people affected were the football clubs for whom he played or managed. However, with Global Warming / Climate Change / Carbon pollution / Environmentalism... etc., etc., it is different.

In recent surveys, more than half the public has shown that they don\'t understand what the \'experts\' are saying about these buzzword killer issues and the \'science\' behind them and this does worry people because we are all affected and will all have to shoulder a share of the eyewatering projected costs to resolve these much hyped \'problems\' whose exact genesis and nature seem elusively to always be attributable to the one thing that we haven\'t done. The dangerous fact is that a growing proportion of the population does not believe that they exist and, with scientists from the UK\'s foremost climate change institute at UEA, the University of East Anglia, appearing to have doctored evidence and facts to fit the theory... well, you can see how scepticism has crept in.

In truth, There probably is a problem with man made climate change over and above the natural cyclical climate change that has always happened and there are plenty of good reasons why we would want a better environment and a cleaner, greener planet - just think of City Smogs and their effectsa on children, that will be reason enough. However, screeching at us like coffee overdosed harpies is not a good way to explain them. Nor are people fooled that a raft of industries that need massive amounts of public funds or laws compelling people to use their products in order to operate at all, will represent economic opportunity when all they appear to represent is cost, cost, cost.

When economic times seemed good, a majority was happy to indulge Climate Change and Carbon Crisis driven programmes in the same way that, when times seemed good, they  bought organic food. In these straightened times when every penny counts, people need to understand why they are paying for a particular policy; its proponents considering it a self evident good is no longer reason enough.

Now is the time for sensible scientists and engineers to develop the clean, green and profitable (without state assistance or the need for a law to say that you have to buy them) products that can take to the market in the traditional manner, by being what consumers and businesses select out of free choice because they believe it will add value to their lives and work. Now is the time to consider those climate engineering solutions that are projected to cost a fraction of the price anticipated for even modest levels of carbon reduction.

Before they embark on any more junkets - estimates vary, but it seems that between 8,000 and 15,000 eco specialists  have descended on Copenhagen for the UN Climate Conference and associated bean feasts; how much carbon there? - the climate change evangelists should consider the notion that the public deserves a better explanation and better calibrated prognosis than the current flood of panicky wolf crying and conflicting predictions from models whose assumptions vary. And the reasons for doing things in a better, cleaner manner should be considered in the light of improving our lives not reducing our travel and lifestyle to the limited options of an earlier age.

There is enormous opportunity here, but it\'s not being grasped by the public and beating them with it will not make them any more amenable to spending money for a problem they can\'t see today at a time when they can\'t afford their current lifestyle, let alone wish to sacrifice more money to fund a worse one. If the prospect of a cleaner world is to gain wide acceptance, it must be sold on the basis of values that can be delivered today, not forced down the throats of an increasingly unbelieving and resistant public for possible results that might come tomorrow.

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