Actual Data... there's a thought.

This is an idea which is way overdue. Scientists in 49 countries will participate in a 10-year project to collect and share thousands of measurements of the Earth, ranging from weather to streamflow to ground tremors to air pollution.

Most of the data is already collected by various sources, but not easily shared.

"It will not be the technology that limits it, it will be the sociology," Michael Leavitt (head of the US EPA) said, noting that the problem will be overcoming bureaucracy, politics, turf.

First problem on the agenda - how are the activist groups going to react when claims of worsening pollution, air quality or global warming are scientifically denied?