All Wet

Australian scientists have produced a computer simulation of the world two and a half thousand million years ago, which suggests that about ninety-seven to ninety-eight per cent of the planet's surface was covered in water. Naturally, the only way the Press Association can convey this to its readers is by way of Hollywood; in this case Waterworld, a Kevin Costner vehicle in which "humanity struggles to survive after the ice caps melt and inundate the planet with water". The Press Association happily labels the time of excess surface moisture "the waterworld era"; however, despite this creditable instance of Hollywood's customary geological realism, there were one or two differences from the film. For one thing, the water contained no fish. "Back then life consisted of nothing more complex than algae and bacteria", some of which may have been even less interesting on the personal level than a character played by Kevin Costner.