what sherlock would have concluded

The BBC's summer success Sherlock ends tomorrow night. In a very short time, the nation has once again fallen in love with the great detective's powers of deduction. If only that fascination could be taken a step further.

Two years ago, Chris Rapley, a passionate Holmesian and head of the Science Museum, told me that had Sherlock Holmes brought his forensic skills to the subject of climate change, he would have been in no doubt.

Sherlock Holmes used to have this adage that however unlikely and uncomfortable your conclusion may be, if all other possibilities had been ruled out, you were probably right. Nobody would be happier than me if tomorrow, or later today, it turned out that for some reason we had got it all completely wrong and actually we can carry on using fossil fuels and there's no problem and everything's great. It just isn't going to happen. Because all the evidence is that that is not true. And Sherlock Holmes would have concluded that quite quickly.


pic:  Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson in 'Sherlock'