There is so much to get hot and bothered about

In bed one night after a sweltering day last week, I lay, wide awake, striking out at mosquitos while avoiding the lengthening limbs spread across my bed.

Hot and uncomfortable, I imagined with horror what life will be like when these little limbs are fully grown and temperatures reach five or 6C higher than they are now. More mosquitos, more discomfort.

Not a pleasant thought. But my horror was no match for the look I saw crossing my daughter's face when she said to me: "I've heard that parents have sex once every two weeks. Do you?"

A little part of me wished I could answer: "No, not us. We have sex once every two days." But that would be a lie, and it would have ruined her life.

But not as much as climate change denialists might.

I read with dread a columnist scoffing at the COP17 talks last Thursday.

David Gleason wrote in the Business Day that nothing will be achieved in Durban: "Zilch. Zero. Squat. Nil."

He was delighted at the thought, suggesting that the whole climate-change thingy was just a great scam perpetrated on the planet. I wish he was right, but in support of his argument he referred readers to The Spectator's recent cover story about a scientist, Nils-Axel Mörner.

Mö rner claims that "the sea is not rising precipitously". Gleason clearly likes this.

The man apparently believes he has the paranormal capacity to divine water with a stick, and once presented evidence to the UK House of Lords that included a graph that had been tilted by 25 degrees or so in order to show that there is no measured increase in sea levels.

But Gleason doesn't tell us that Mörner has been discredited, and the mainstream media which ran his claims were rapped over the knuckles for reporting them as fact. Australian author John Cook writes on his blog, Skeptical Science: "In short, Mörner's conspiracy theory and accusation of falsified data is complete nonsense."

Dangerous stuff. But we're all allowed an opinion and, in my case, a little hyperbole. It's just a pity when opinions are based on unscientific material like Mörner's. Frankly, though, I'd rather be having more sex.