This years extreme winter has encouraged many (American) doubters to say "Global Warming" doesn’t exist. "Hey it’s so COLD and so much SNOW outside, how can there be global WARMING …"
First of all: it should be called Climate Change – and Climate Change only!
Second: Actually more heat causes more water in the Oceans to evaporate. All that water has to come down somewhere. So in winter that water comes down as snow. It’s that easy to understand …
We are currently reaching Peak Oil.
Less Oil means higher prices for Petrol and Fertilizers.
Expensive Petrol and Fertilizers will raise Food Prices and lower overall production.
Less Food means Starvation.
Starvation will reduces the amount of Humans.
Less Humans means less Industry and Farming.
Less Industry and Farming will reduce CO2 and Climate Change.
Global Grain stocks are already in decline and food prices have skyrocketed in recent years (especially for poor nations).
We are already on our way to solve climate change …
So it’s over – we are all doomed!
At least when you believe the international outcry over the failure of the Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Especially the Green Movement cried foul especially loud.
Gimme a break!
Anyone who seriously follow international politics knows that it is VERY hard to many countries to agree to a BINDING new international law. It is almost IMPOSSIBLE to get ALL countries to agree to a solution for such a complex problem.
So instead of a lot of public pressure and hysteria some smart diplomacy and solutions should have been produced – especially by the Green Movement.
Instead of one binding law / goal for all there should have been different levels of commitment: stricter ones for rich countries, who can afford to do more – and maybe more generic "gentler" ones for developing and poor nations.
Climate Change won’t be solved by one master plan – as exciting and mind pleasing that idea is. Instead we need to have many solutions and approaches to the problem.
One more thing: the bashing of the politicians was especially surreal and stupid.
They only acted based on the interested of their countries and economies. So they only reflected the greed and laziness of their people.
Neither Obama nor Wen Jiabao are responsible for the pollution and waste their countries create – it’s the millions of citizens that want to drive cars, eat loads of food and consume the newest goods. Just because the Chinese are not as rich as Americans doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be just as wasteful and greedy.
We are genetically programmed to want MORE of everything, because only the abundance and security of good supplies guarantees our offspring’s future and perpetuation of our DNA. We are built to deal with "modest" times – but we prefer plentifulness.
Unless consumers are truly willing to consume less or/and smarter, than climate change can be reversed. At the moment we need to reduce consume and invent new sustainable ways of living. We are not there yet – so only a smarter handling of resources will work.
So Climate Change protest groups should create local groups and "harass" … I mean visit local people and "help" them to live greener.
Don’t ask politicians to "regulate" a greener lifestyle, because any limits set by them will create only sentiments against doing anything to prevent climate change. And politicians won’t pass the chance to "abuse" climate change laws to sneak in their own dirty deals.
In the usual predictions about Climate Change we hear two scenarios over and over again:
1. … more people will face hunger thanks to lower yields or destroyed crops …
2. … and we will see millions of climate change refuges.
In our modern and humanistic view of the World we like to see all people as equals. Everybody should also have the same chances to lead a prosperous and happy live anywhere.
So much about the idealism.
But not all countries are "created" equal and can offer the same resources to their people to "grow and "develop" like in other so called richer countries.
Or to rephrase my argument: It’s all about location, location, location!
Some regions have better soil, more clean water, a more moderate climate and resources (forests, minerals, fossil fuels etc.).
If you compare let’s say North Africa with (Western) Europe you need to take one look at satellite images and you see the profound difference (you can click each for a larger version).
Europe is mostly green and fertile (apart from Spain) and there are many great rivers streaming across Europe (Rhine, Danube, Tiber, Arno, Po, Oder, Don, Volga, Tagus, Thames, Shannon, etc). Not only provide these many rivers fresh water for people, forests and agriculture alike, but also a network for cheap long distance transportation.
In comparison North Africa has only the Nile –and not many green spots on it’s map.
Europe has overall better soil quality and higher ground water levels thanks to more mountains, rivers and lakes.
The only serious advantage North Africa has is it’s oil.
So the conclusion is simple: some places are simply better to built an civilization, feed many people and start an industry than others.
If you don’t have certain resources you have to import them or create better conditions by using technology.
In our crazy (and unsustainable) thinking we want all nations to develop equally and create the same conditions everywhere.
Ah lovely Europe, we have good soul, plenty of water and charming cottages …
North African nations have sucked their grounds dry, by trying to provide enough water for millions of people and farms to grow food all year around. Countries like Saudi Arabia invest Billions to create small island of green in their deserts.
But it is utter nonsense to recreate for example European Conditions in Saudi Arabia. Terra forming is a VERY long process takes many decades if not hundreds or thousands of years to transform a desert into a rain forest. And it was actually climate change that has transformed the former lush jungles of North Africa into Deserts – and the ice covered plains of Europe into pleasant lands.
Creating "good conditions" for about a Billion people that live in North Africa and the Middle East is not a sustainable nor reachable goal for many generations.
Consider this: there are almost seven billion earthlings and already one billion of us don’t have access to fresh and clean water.
For how many decades have you been trying to turn this desert into a farm?
But the developing nations as well as the rich nations have spent many decades wasting foreign aids to make deserts into green meadows. They try to make inhospitable or low quality lands into highly productive agricultural powerhouses.
Comedian Sam Kinison once made a true, but nasty joke: "Why don’t you starving people move to where the food is?"
This perfectly sums up the problem.
We currently see each other only as Nations with fixed borders. Instead of working on a global settlement policy and using resources in a smart way, each nation tries to squeeze as much out of their lands as possible. While Europe pays farmers to put arable land on hold, North Africans try to make a living out of very bad farmland.
Don’t bring the food to the people – bring the people to the places that grow food.
We should stop wasting precious resources and move people to greener pastures, instead of flying and driving food "into the fucking desert were people for obvious reasons starve".
So we really need a new thinking: Don’t try to turn shitty places into paradise. It’s a waste of resources. Don’t wait for hunger marches and millions of climate change refuges.
We need smart resettlement plans and the truly global sharing of the few good spots we have.
But since we still cling too much to our national (and often religious) identity we have a hard time sharing "our land" with "foreigners". But the concept of "residents" vs. "strangers" is a deadly luxury we can no longer afford.
Scene from Fuerteventura: an African refugee crawls to the beach, while tourists picnic in the background. (click for larger version)
It is cheaper to share than to supply starving people and millions living in refuge camps. We also need better planning where people live and were we grow our food.
For example: It makes no sense to grow tomatoes in the desert in special plantations (which need huge amounts of water) and export (transport = fossil fuel) them to rich countries that could grow them as well.
It is utter madness that many developing nations try to squeeze even more food out of bad soil for an ever growing population … which brings us to the second ugly fact …
I am sick and tired of seeing image of starving children in Western Media to appeal for funds to buy food. We should send them sex educators and condoms instead.
The fight against overpopulation is a harsh and bitter one. Nations like India and China have tried almost all ideas ranging from sterilization to allowing only one child per family to stop from exploding.
The simple truth is that even people hardly able to feed themselves love to fuck and therefore produce babies – which they usually can’t feed either.
Blame the stupidity of the parents and cultural idiosyncrasies for these starving kids.
The consequence is less food for the whole family, which leads either to death or serious male nutrition. And undernourished kids suffer from bad health as well as underperforming brains – because they lacked the proper nutrients to develop their grey cells. Apart from the lack of education many poor people suffer, they also suffer from "stupidity" by male nutrition.
It is utter stupidity to have a bigger population than you can actually feed. The same stupidity applies to parents in developing nations who "breed", but can’t afford their own home or enough food for all. Often these parents are forced to leave their kids with the grandparents and work in far away cities to make a meagre living.
Having fun while wasting a huge amounts of resources, because WE CAN!
You can blame such poor parents equally for their irresponsible behaviour as well as Soccer Moms in the US driving a bad ass SUV.
We humans are genetically wired for breeding – so stopping us from having sex is a "mission impossible".
But we have the technology to "stop having babies". So we need cheap contraception as well as education. Plus if we get women into the "workforce" and give them equal rights in developing nations they also will breed less – like their richer, snottier and more educated sisters in rich nations.
Can you breed responsibly?
I doubt that we currently have the will and openness to resettle people on one side and pursue more aggressive birth control in already overpopulated nations on the other.
Places like Russia or Ukraine have HUGE unused and very fertile areas that are ideal for farming – so has North America. Europe is already pretty crowded, but could certainly use some more immigrants to bolsters it’s greying population.
But once again: I doubt that we as a global society are really ready to share and breed responsibly. Instead we prefer to let others suffer and waste huge amounts of money and resources to "help" them …
BBC News: Bangladesh seeks 15% of any UN climate fund
It’s not just Bangladesh – many Developing Nations want some huge amounts of money to "get into climate change".
It is obviously easy to point the finger at the rich polluters like the US and Europe – and ask them to cough up money for change.
But Developing Nations have often been blatantly ignorant about the "Green Message" banging at their doors and growing their own economies in a smart and sustainable way.
Many of these Nations have also received Million and Billions of Dollars and Euros of Foreign Aid – and have squandered them …
And there is the old ugly Elephant of Overpopulation still in the room: especially countries like Bangladesh have failed to curb population growth to a sustainable level.
It might be a cynical thing to point out – but every new mouth to feed makes the problem worse – and this is hardly a problem created by pollution from rich nations.
Sure we "rich people" in the West are too blame for much – but not for everything. And Developing Nations should get smarter and more independent in their own development.
Christmas is the annual apex of Consumerism all over the world. Countries like China celebrate it like mad just as so called Christian nations.
For many Companies this shopping festival is the most important date – they make 50 or more percent of their sales during these days.
We certainly could cut down on consumerism (and many stupid presents we buy and travels we make during the silly season).
But consumers won’t like a new austerity and so the waste will rage on …
Click image for more water.
This years autumn storms are causing once again a lot of devastation and misery. My heart goes out to the wet people in Britain …
Economist.com: Too many people?
The Economist has special debates on it’s websites, which are brilliant! Not the usual flame wars and hate speech you find in normal internet “discussions”.
Their debates run over several days and experts deliver great arguments for both sides.
This debate is highly recommended (but already closed).
Most Westerners waste precious fossil resources by travelling alone in their cars or on their bikes. In developing nations cars, motor bikes and even push bikes are for mass transport.
If you travel alone on a car 95% of the petrol will be wasted to move the car – not to transport you.
If the distance allows it than use public transport or a bike – or a small vehicle with a better weight to passenger ratio.
Westerners should see cars and motorbikes no longer as cool lifestyle choices(for their penis or social status), but as serious tools to be shared with others. The age of unsustainable individual transport has to come to an end.
Source: Spiegel Online (German)
The volume of the Arctic ice has shrunk a whopping 57% from 2004 till 2008. This is incredible and defies almost all forecasts how fast climate change will impact our lives.
Click image for a larger version.
China is loosing arable land and clean drinking water at an alarming rate. Their pollution is adding huge amounts of dirt and green house gases to the global community. China must act – as well as the US and the Europeans.
But most of all it should start treating it’s citizens not like dirt anymore.
Anyone remember the devastating fires in Greece last year?
This year it’s once again California’s turn to suffer fires and huge areas of nature destroyed. Yes, Mother nature uses fires to clear out forests – so big fires are not unusual. But climate change and human intervention have changed the equation.
We hardly can afford to loose huge amounts of trees – we need every tree to get rid of CO2.
Documentary / Fiction – 1hour 46minutes – 1990 – the sound is a bit out of sync in the second half
I am a huge fan of James Burke – he is one of the great writers and thinker who can connect the dots and explain it all to mere mortals like myself. A science historian and TV producer with an impressive resume.
The first part is an excellent analysis of human history and how the weather influenced human development and history – and he we have influenced the weather. The second part is more fictional – a docu drama if you will – how a global climate watchdog battles global warming and which measures have to be done to change our current unsustainable lifestyle.
This two part series "After the Warming" was produced 1990 – and it freaked me out.
First – it shocked me, that he had already such an insight and clear suggestions in the year 1990, when hardly anyone – and certainly not the mass media – was talking about climate change and global warming.
Second – his "predictions" or better say insights are spot on, especially watching it now almost 20 years after it has been produced.
Third – we have already wasted so much time to change our lifestyle and we are still far behind what would actually be possible to re-balance the weather system.
Although the quality of the video isn’t brilliant – the content is. So please watch it.
Several years ago a cargo ship lost thousands or rubber ducks in the ocean. Fifteen years they arrived at the English Coast.
But the ducklings long journey actually helped scientists to track the currents of the oceans.
Maybe I start a science project like this myself – the next time my rubber duck and I go for a swim …
BBC News: WWF urges Brazil biofuel projects
Brazil has been on the forefront of the biofuel revolution. But once again it shows that industrial production of anything we humans need always causes some problems.
Overall the Brazilian’s experience with sugar cane has been VERY good. But they have to watch out to keep nature’s balance, water supply and bio diversity to make this a long term success.
But in that respect I have more confidence in Brazil that I have for example in the US obsession with Corn and making Ethanol from it. What a stupid idea – since corn produces a LOT LESS fuel than sugar cane.
BBC News: Vast cracks appear in Arctic ice
It’s melting and melting and melting. I wonder when we start to RALLY do something about climate change? When New Orleans is an underwater museum or Venice a diver’s Disney Land?
Do we care about our TV animal celebrities only because we feel guilty for killing off the rest of the species? Do we watch and say to ourselves “See, they are not all gone!”
Isn’t mass illusion a nice thing to clear our collective consciousness?
Many nations have one important water life line. India has the Ganges and China has the Yangtze.
Thanks to overpopulation and rampant industrialization the Yangtze is heavily polluted and has the lowest water level in about a 100 years. The building of the Three Gorges Damn didn’t help either.
Many different species of fish have disappeared and the beloved River Dolphins are also almost gone.
But the Chinese Government has hardly done anything to reverse the effect – but the people have started to protest in recent years. In many areas there were public demonstrations against new factories that would pollute the river and the surrounding areas.
But it will take many decades to repair the damage – if it can be repaired at all.
All our computers waste huge amounts of energy by waiting for us humans to do something. Most so called CPU cycles are wasted for waiting for you to press a mouse button or open a new webpage.
LocalCooling is a gadget for WindowsXP users to reduce their energy usage – or at least configure their computers to shut down unused parts or completely. Hey, you can even calculate how many trees you have saved – and there is even a top ten list for your and your buddies to participate in a global energy saving contest.
Let’s all say it: awesome!
Or is it? Overall there is nothing new in here: all energy settings can be found in the aptly named Energy control panel. So it’s only a good remix of already existing.
So if you really want to save some energy, than open your Energy control panel and tell your machine to shutdown the monitor and hard drive after a few minutes idle time … and don’t download that LocalCooling application and don’t waste any more energy thinking about it.
What we REALLY need are computer components that act more energy conscious and use a lot less electricity. Intels newest mobile Core2 processors only know two speed settings: half and full speed. There should be more settings.
Earth Day is one of these new holidays that give me the creeps. They always have a good intention behind them, to raise awareness and hopefully get people to do something.
Instead it’s a humiliating reminder that 99,9% of our fellow humans don’t care or simply don’t know what’s going on.
I personally would prefer if some great catastrophe would wipe out a big city or kill a million people – MAYBE then everyday would be Earth Day?
In China air pollution kills at least 100.000 people a year. But this number hardly registers when your population is over 1.000.000.000.
Don’t forget: 22nd of April is Earth Day! Either kill someone to reduce the human stress on our planet or do something nice for mother nature …
Rice is the most important food source, but climate change is fucking rice production up (from the New Scientist):
Rice is arguably the world’s most important food source and helps feed about half the globe’s people. But yields in many areas will drop as the globe warms in future years, a review of studies on rice and climate change suggests.
The poorest parts of the world, including Africa, will probably be hardest hit, the study says. Rice harvests already need to increase by about a third just to keep up with global population growth.
Predicting how a changing climate will affect crop yields is notoriously difficult. Temperature, carbon dioxide concentration and ozone levels all have a big impact on growth. Yet most studies look at just one of these factors, making it difficult to know what the combined effect will be.
It is also hard to know whether results from experiments in greenhouses with artificial climates will hold true in the real world. But when the evidence from some 80 different studies is combined, the outlook is bleak, says Elizabeth Ainsworth of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
In regions where the average daily temperatures are expected to rise above 30ºC, rice yields will start to fall off, and the impact will get worse as the temperature increases.
The drop in yield caused by rising temperatures can be counteracted by the boost to photosynthesis provided by the increased levels of carbon dioxide driving climate change. But when Ainsworth pooled the studies, she found that effect is not strong enough to counteract the stress plants suffer at high temperatures.
Harvests will also be reduced by rising ground-level ozone concentrations. They are caused by nitrogen oxides (NOX) from power stations that catalyse the formation of ozone in warm and sunny conditions. Ainsworth’s review found that ozone concentrations of around 60 parts per billion, which have already being recorded on farms in China and the United States, cause yields to drop by 14%.
Experiments on the effect of ozone using greenhouses containing artificial atmospheres are still crude, so other rice researchers are urging caution in interpreting Ainsworth’s results. For example, many experiments use fixed levels of ozone, but outdoors levels fluctuate daily and plants can use the low points to recover from brief periods of high concentrations.
Currently a huge storms blows Europe to bits, stuff got destroyed and people killed. It’s like typical April weather on steroids: storms, sunshine, rain, sunshine, snow and sun again.
Still February was way to warm and March seems to heading the same way. I am wondering if we have another record summer ahead?
What’s Chinese for “fucking too much snow, because we wrecked the environment with our dirty factories”?
The lunar new year is a huge festival in most Asian countries – it’s really like western Christmas and new years eve in one big celebration.
For China’s millions of migrating workers it’s often the ONLY chance to see their family ONCE a year altogether. This year around 200 million are on the road trying to get to their loved ones – this is a huge number. That’s bigger then the whole population of Russia or half of Europe traveling. And because China is such a big country many people spend days getting home and back to work again.
That is why the snow catastrophe arouses such fierce response from many Chinese stuck at train stations and airports. They only vacation is currently fucked up and China experiences how fragile it’s transport and energy system really is. Many power lines have been knocked out – and the military is desperately trying to help people stuck in the cold to survive. So far 50 people have died.
Forests need small fires to ‘clean’ themselves – but since most of our Forests no longer are in a natural condition fires sometimes get totally out of hand. Climate change and extreme weather increases the disastrous effects even further.
Another problem is that we humans have intervened before the fires in a bad way and do so after the big barbecue. Instead of supporting nature to rebuild itself – we use the new ‘free space’ for property development or farming.
Not good.
For sentimental values we accept almost any waste of energy or resources. For the kids, for relationships and feel good moments we are willing to waste, waste and waste …
The way we produce food is simply stupid. We ship our calories back and forth across the globe – often several times, because one industrial food processing service might be cheaper at the other end of the world. But all this shipping costs huge amounts of energy and causes lots of pollution.
Produce locally, ship locally, eat locally. That would be sustainable. Today be can grow almost all exotic foods even in cold countries – and off season.
Climate Change, reduced consumerism, no more cheap flights to your favorite party location, less cheap petrol, more expensive food, responsible consumerism, less convenience food, less lead and cheap toys, more reusing things – less shopping for new stuff …
Sure all that complicated and a serious effort for humans.
But how would you explain to those two chaps why we fucked up the whole planet. Most animals will simply be destroyed by more and extreme climate change. Sure nature will survive and produce some new amazing species after we have killed ourselves and the rest of the inhabitants of planet earth.
We need change – but not at a snails pace and with much more brains. Aren’t we always saying we are the smartest life form on earth? Time to prove it.
The solution to traffic jams? Built bigger streets!
But bigger street need more space. More space means that parts of the cities are cut apart and distancing them even further from each other. Plus nobody like living near a big highway and loads of pollution. So people move more to the countryside – pushing city boundaries even further apart and creating the need to for bigger streets to the outskirts.
Instead of making bigger cities – we need smaller ones, like old European ones with narrow streets and integrated neighborhoods (living, working, shopping and amusement in one area). Smaller distance means shorter travel time, you can maybe walk or cycle there.
Google founder Larry Page married last weekend. All the best to him and his lovely wife.
The company itself made a big PR coup by joining to War on Climate Change by developing alternative energy sources, especially for it’s global power hungry server farms.
Good thing that the wedding was total eco disaster: flying in all the guests with private jets to a small island, using huge amounts of electricity to keep the party and the drinks cooled.
Nice work Mister and Misses Google. I guess working on climate change and changing your lifestyle applies only to the little people?
So much about the famous company motto "Do no evil"?! It just proves that most rich people preach modesty to the rest of us, while they indulge the glorious wasteful lifestyle in privacy.
The last few winters we had catastrophic weather: loads of snow and extreme colds. Because of the high energy prices this cost many people a small fortune. Last years winter was incredible mild (I was sitting on the balcony just with a T-shirt).
Climate change is happening – but it’s effects are hard to predict in the short term. The weather systems seems out of sync – one extreme weather chasing another.
Weather always used to bad this time of the year – but in recent years one nasty storm seems to come after another. And it was the first time since the installation of the Dutch artificial water barriers that they were actually used. Overall costal defenses have been challenged since Friday, but the weather was not as bad as feared.
The weather is getting more extreme here – climate change is happening. I am curious what kind of winter we gonna have in Europe this year? Super mild like last year or an extremely cold, long and tons of snow like two years ago. A ‘normal’ winter seems out of the question these days.
Overpopulation is still one of our biggest problems. Humanities growth is unsustainable for our own good and the rest of nature. This becomes especially clear in the case of the global water crises. Here some insights from the ‘old’ (2004) BBC special report Planet under pressure. Check part 2 ‘running dry’ for some gruel news.
But I am afraid nothing has changed in the last two years – the poor are still thirsty:
* One billion people without access to clean drinking water
* 2.6 billion without adequate sanitation
* Rapid urbanization increasing pressure on water resources
* 30-40% of water ‘lost’ through illegal tapping and leaks
(Source: UN World Water Report)
If you are really interested you should also read the recent BBCs comment page regarding the water crises. We need conserve water, stop overpopulation and the total commercialization of water supply. Water is a common good, it needs to be protected, but not overpriced so it becomes unaffordable for the poor.
Hey Al, you have been cheated out of your Presidency – but the rest of the world loves you and appreciates your tireless effort to save humanity. Not many politician are so dedicated and willing to fight again for an important cause after they received a kick in the butt.
Can’t wait to see all the venom and hate you get from the American rightwing for winning the Peace Nobel Price. Peace seems a hard thing to swallow for some people …
More? BBC some early reactions
Americas addiction to oil? Sure! After the OPEC oil shocks in the 1970’s people already thought about a more sustainable energy policy. Jimmy Carter tried to break new ground by installing a solar panel on the White House 1979. Smart move. Ronald Reagan had it removed a few years later. Neither Clinton, nor the Bush’s were seriously interested in alternative energy sources. Almost 30 years and hardly anyone has learned any lessons from the first oil shocks.
Overpopulation is still one of our biggest problems. Humanities growth is unsustainable for our own good and the rest of nature. This becomes especially clear in the case of the global water crises. Here some insights from the ‘old’ (2004) BBC special report Planet under pressure. Check part 2 ‘running dry’ for some gruel news.
But I am afraid nothing has changed in the last two years – the poor are still thirsty:
* One billion people without access to clean drinking water
* 2.6 billion without adequate sanitation
* Rapid urbanization increasing pressure on water resources
* 30-40% of water ‘lost’ through illegal tapping and leaks
(Source: UN World Water Report)
If you are really interested you should also read the recent BBCs comment page regarding the water crises. We need conserve water, stop overpopulation and the total commercialization of water supply. Water is a common good, it needs to be protected, but not overpriced so it becomes unaffordable for the poor.
Energy efficient light bulbs have been around for many years now. Have you replaced all of the old energy wasting bulbs in your home?
Brother Comrade where have all the trees gone?
China has chopped down 80% of it’s trees. No surprise they have gigantic sandstorms and extreme pollution. Trees would save the people – even without hugging them.
BBC Video about rising food prices in China.
The production of bio fuels is driving up prices for food – as well as the growing demand of the awakening giants India and China. There are two billion stomachs to fill and they no longer just eat a bowl of rice.
One aspect of global climate change and peak oil has been hardly discussed in public: food supply.
We highly depend on oil for food production, fertilizer and obviously distribution. We continuously kill huge amounts of livestock, because of diseases like the birdflu, but also more and more farmland is unusable, because of climate change or environmental problems (I am looking at you China).
Africa, who could produce loads of food, is shut out of most markets, because of protectionism in the US and EU.
So expect ever higher prices for food for the coming winter.
Ed sent me this great link: BBC Global Dimming (from 2005). A great documentation about the complexity and effects of climate change. This one concentrates less on CO2 and Methane (the usual suspects) but simply on dirt & dust in the atmosphere.
Here is a more scientific Wikipedia link for some more background information. As usual with BBC stuff: highly recommended.
Thanks Ed!