Coal sceptics say the dirtiest of fossil fuels will inevitably be squeezed out in Europe as new solar and wind capacity comes on stream and ageing coal plants are shut down.

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The actualization of an overall wind-power strategy is not going smoothly, however, and the number of new wind farms coming on-stream has fallen by 30%, in part as a consequence of the recession.

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Thus the Gulf Stream, and hence the wind, rather than being minor features of oceanic climate are best regarded as the primary elements.

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The good news is that many of the sensitive wafers which had been collecting particles of solar wind (charged atoms and molecules that stream out of the sun) survived the subsequent crash intact.

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In both instances, the Met Office failed to predict the movements of the jet stream - the high-level wind that races round the world 10km above the surface.

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From the center of the stage, a powerful stream of air was sent though a vertically positioned wind tunnel, allowing acrobats to hover in mid-air.

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If the sinking were stopped by adding fresh water (a deus ex machina often invoked to change the climate), the Gulf Stream would hardly care except in so far as the wind system changed too.

ECONOMIST: On climate change, Bretton Woods, the Pope's speech | The

If the sinking motion at high latitudes were completely stopped, by covering that part of the ocean by sea ice for instance, there would still be a Gulf Stream to the south, and maybe an even more powerful one as the wind field would probably then become stronger.

ECONOMIST: On climate change, Bretton Woods, the Pope's speech | The