Rhoda:

I lived with district heating in Moscow. They had no means of selectively turning it off remotely, but anyone who lived on the lower floors found their flats were cold, while we at the top of the block 12th storey often opened our windows even when it was -10C outside, there being no way to regulate the radiators. There was a period in the spring when the local CHP station was shut for maintenance - usually about 3 weeks. We were fortunate in having a six burner gas stove, which allowed us to heat 3 very large kettles in order to take a bath. If there was a late cold snap then it was on with the electric fires.

The CHP station was coal fired. You could always tell how long ago it had snowed by looking to see what shade of grey it had become with the particulate dropout. Particulate is probably a euphemism - large smuts were not uncommon.

Hothouse (or more commonly Greenhouse) Earth is easily defined - it is the situation where no continental ice sheets occurred on the Earth. Look up how long it would take for all the ice on Greenland and Antarctica to melt to see just how ludicrous using this term is. It is being used purely for its shock value. Greenhouse Earth is far less threatening.

Antarctica has been ice covered for c. 15 million years - including times like the Pliocene that was significantly warmer than today. Rubbish, utter, utter rubbish!

Golf charlie
Like many Scots my grandmother had siblings and first cousins all over the world. Economics the primary reason, although some forced too. Had she been anti-English I'd have horror stories to tell my grandchildren so events in the early 19th century would be relayed to people living mid 21st century by two people born 60 years apart. Serbs, Croats and the other Balkan people were killing other in WW2 so recent score settli G not a surprise.
It's part of my dual personality to both think that small nations currently part of a larger nation have a right to become independent (not sure Catalonia was ever truly independent post Roman Empire) but also that the EU had a huge benefit in spreading wealth and reducing inter-community friction. I know that will incur the wrath of many here but it's what I think and nothing in 40 years has made me think otherwise.

Little-shrew killer. You utter rotter!

Update on onion eating mice, traps and peanut butter have eliminated 4. I'd say they looked more like shrews but I'm no expert.

Supertroll, I am actually passed being alarmed at the BBC. It's clear that even they don't believe it any more.

Imagine, if scientists (sic) told a major news outlet that we are headed for a hothouse extinction event, with parts of the earth 'becoming' uninhabitable - would it get just 90 seconds on primetime news, followed quickly by an interview of Love Island contestants, a walking wind scupture which has zero chance of being developerd by Nasa for Mars, and scottish kids getting thei Highers results by text. It's unthinkable.

We've really won. Everybody has alarmism-fatigue. They've cried wolf too often. Where were they 3 months ago when we were under a foot of snow? People don't have as short memories as they like to think. There have always been fires in summer, most of the Californian ones are down to bad land management. The Met Office says the warm weather could last until October... yes it's called SUMMER. We have had them before.

TBYJ. It's worse, the BBC is just following the flow. Plug "Hothouse" into a search engine. It's everywhere, pages and pages of it. I lost heart before finding any voice of reason. Climate porn + heatwave = stupidity.

It's klimatporn at its worst. First soften up with commentary about the improbability of avoiding a 2o rise without immediate drastic decline in our use of fossil fuels (which ain't going to happen). Now the kicker, a 2o rise will send the Earth spiralling out of control, and we are all going to die. Despicable.

BBC Reporting Climate Hothouse

I had to laugh this morning at the predictability of the BBC running the scaremongering story about Hothouse Earth. More funny was the way they segued from the end of the world straight into Love Island.....

Rhoda and Supertroll,

I think some wealthy politically motivated Climate Science advocates are eyeing up property they would like devalued before they buy it cheap. Beach frontage, low lying Florida, storm vulnerable coastal resorts, California - where all the money for water supplies has been siphoned off, tropical paradise islands, the list goes on.

It is just another repackaging of Green Blob fearmongering. It is brown and smells bad.