It's the yin-yang of the planet earth. There may be bacteria harmful to us...AND...there maybe the cure to many conditions there, too.

There was a comment once that when you drink water there are molecules/atoms from the time of the dinosaurs in that glass of water. There is also the theory that with the melting of the polar ice/snow, and the exposure of land mass that has not seen the light of day for a very long time, there will be ancient bacteria released into our water & air. So...there's not much we can do but enjoy our time on this beautiful blue planet.

While the potential does exist for some introduction of formerly isolated organisms, generally speaking, the scientific community studying these things, takes pretty good precautions. In order not to contaminate any samples with typical surface organics, they are pretty cautious with this stuff. If they introduced "normal" bacteria and other organisms, they would taint the results of their studies.

We should likewise keep in perspective that today's world itself, with widespread travel, has greatly aided in the spread of formerly isolated populations of certain organisms. There is always a danger that some isolated organism behaves differently in new environments. This kind of thing happens all the time. Additionally, there is some evidence that even extraterrestrial sources such as meteorites could introduce some new life form. And then of course you have natural mutations that occur in many simple organisms like bacteria. That is not to suggest that we should throw caution to the wind, but the scientific community usually behaves pretty responsibly in this regard. But I can assure you that no such precautions are taken when oil companies do deep drilling for oil. The point is that a lot of opportunities exist today that can release long ago isolated and/or mutated organisms. The opportunity today is far greater than it was a couple centuries ago. It would be foolish to deliberately avoid engaging in scientific learning because we fear the potential hazards of discovery. To a great extent, that is what the Dark Ages was about and it really didn't work out so well.

Some people (the Global Warming Crowd) are not going to like this, it is all cut and dried no descent allowed

No, not really. The increasing concentrations in the atmosphere pretty clearly show that much of the additional CO2 produced by man is not being absorbed (or processed), but is accumulating.

Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again)

• Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years

The supposed 'consensus' on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.....

The same goes for the impact of the sun – which was highly active for much of the 20th Century.

'Nature is about to carry out a very interesting experiment,' he said. 'Ten or 15 years from now, we will be able to determine much better whether the warming of the late 20th Century really was caused by man-made CO2, or by natural variability.'

Meanwhile, since the end of last year, world temperatures have fallen by more than half a degree, as the cold 'La Nina' effect has re-emerged in the South Pacific.

'We're now well into the second decade of the pause,' said Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. 'If we don't see convincing evidence of global warming by 2015, it will start to become clear whether the models are bunk. And, if they are, the implications for some scientists could be very serious.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093264/Forget-global-warming--Cycle-25-need-worry-NASA-scientists-right-Thames-freezing-again.html#ixzz1ksMp6s3F

caused by man-made CO2, or by natural variability.'

I am betting on the sum

Man too puny to change much

Wow! That's an exceedingly ignorant statement, up there with "man will never fly" and "The Earth is the center of the universe and the sun and stars revolve around us". One man might be puny, the human population and how much we can effect and change our environment is not. I guess we can't level mountains and set rivers on fire either.

RickCarter

I agree with you. I too think that much more need to be done.