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Today we are joined by Pete, Deborah, Ruth, Christiane, Cathy, Rozita, David (the boss), and myself.

Climate Change is the for today's big topic. a summary of the report.

The question is how do we cover it? As Pete mentioned in his earlier post we had a lot of response to our piece last night about the 5-minute-switch-off campaign.

Cathy: Yalding in Kent is the sinkhole of Europe. It flooded in January 2003. It's already been threatened by climate change.
Paul and Ruth: I think we should have a vocal climate-change sceptic on.

Deborah: Lehman Brothers put out a report this week on how businesses must take note of Climate change and adapt or die. John Llewellyn, senior economic policy advisor at Lehmann Brothers, on how companies must adapt to climate change. We should get this guy on.

Deborah: Can we get small business people on who are trying hard to make a living and don't have time to worry about climate change?

Pete: We need to keep it personal and avoid a pundir-fest. We should ask is reports like these actually make any difference? It's taken them days to come up with the phrase "very likely".

Other ideas around today . . .

Oil Company profits
Peter: Record profits by Roiyal Dutch Shell and Exxon. They're companies, making profits is what they do?

Black coaches in the NFL
Paul: This is an old idea I raised a week or so ago but today Hasit raised it again and the Superbowl is just around the corner (4th Feb). Are Tony Dungie and Lovie Smith a watershed for black equality? Why aren't there more black coaches in the NFL? Peter's asking: can we broaden this out to Europe?

Smoking ban in Europe
Deborah: Should there be an EU-wide ban on smoking? This was suggested by the EU Commissioner for Health and Safety yesterday.

Noise
Cathy: Newcastle is apparently the noisiest urban area in England. It's like a loud "alarm clock ringing in your ear." Does noise blight your life? Christiane says: "It's so loud in India!" That's one for our India Rising debate next week although having said that, this debate is already up on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's site.

Outsourcing
Cathy: Globalisation -- Britain is the winner when it comes to outsourcing.