SOME LIKE IT HOT

Global warming? Pah, says Michael Griffin, administrator of NASA. He told NPR's Earth Today:

I have no doubt that global -- that a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with. To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change. First of all, I don't think it's within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does not change, as millions of years of history have shown, and second of all, I guess I would ask which human beings - where and when - are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take.

Shuck off those long-sleeved shirts. Tank tops and boxers for everyone!

GELDOF IRKED AT GORE'S EARTH SHOWS

Bob Geldof, organizer of Live Aid and Live 8, the benefit concerts, spit on the Live Earth concerts planned by Al Gore for this summer, saying "everybody" knows about global warming.

The Associated Press reports:

"I hope they're a success," De Volkskrant newspaper quoted Geldof as saying in an interview.

"But why is (Gore) actually organizing them? To make us aware of the greenhouse effect? Everybody's known about that problem for years. We are all (expletive) conscious of global warming," he said.

Geldof, former front-man of The Boomtown Rats, organized the mammoth Live Aid concerts in 1985 to benefit victims of famine in Ethiopia and the Live 8 concerts in 2005 for African debt relief. He has dedicated much of his career to advocating on behalf of humanitarian causes.

"I would only organize (Live Earth) if I could go on stage and announce concrete environmental measures from the American presidential candidates, Congress or major corporations," he told the newspaper. "They haven't got those guarantees, so it's just an enormous pop concert or the umpteenth time that, say, Madonna or Coldplay get up on stage."

Live Earth shows are scheduled for July 7 in New York, London, Tokyo and four other cities around the globe.

CAREFUL WITH THE FISH

A new study out Friday says risks from eating mercury-contaminated fish are realm and "children and women of childbearing age should take particular care." The Telegraph reports:

Species high in the food chain, such as swordfish, king mackerel, albacore tuna, shark and tilefish, contain higher concentrations of mercury. ...

Exposure to methylmercury now constitutes a public health problem in most regions of the world and concentrations are now being found in a number of fish-eating wildlife species in remote areas, according to the Madison Declaration on Mercury Pollution published today in a special issue of Ambio, the journal of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Levels from developing countries over the past three decades have offset a fall from developed nations, meriting a worldwide alert about the dangers, say scientists.

Consider yourself alerted.

WOBBLE ON THIS

The Daily Mail makes Thursday ever so much gloomier with this little ray of sunshine. Doomsayers, rejoice:

Scientists have found that on average mammal species enjoy only 2.5 million years of life before being wiped out because of the Earth's "wobble."

They say when the tilt and orbit reach key points it can spark dramatic global cooling - and the last time this happened was 2.6 million years ago.

This suggests we are overdue a wave of extinction.

However, before you panic, scientists say our planet has changed beyond all recognition in the last 3 million years.

The new research published in the journal Nature (must keep) however sheds new light on just why individual mammal species seem to come and go with mysterious regularity.

The study, conducted by researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, involved looking at 22 million years of data on rodent species to see which ones appeared and died out at key points.

They then studied the pattern of the Earth's wobble, which is caused by two factors, our orbit around the sun and the tilt of the planet.

Both of these can be slightly altered by the gravitational pull of other planets, in the case of the tilt it can adjust by as much as two degrees, and the orbit can vary from a circle to an ellipse.

Lead researcher Dr Jan van Dam said when the tilt reaches a certain point and the orbit is almost a perfect circle it can trigger ice sheet expansion.

This could then lead to colder summers, changes in humidity and significant climate cooling.

He found a clear pattern between the Earth's wobble and mammal species dying out.

There were two distinct cycles of species turnover, one with peaks every 2. 5 million years and the other every million years.

Dr van Dam said the last peak was 2. 6 million years ago.

Van Dam him.