Pope Benedict XVI has warned scientists to beware of making alarming predictions without having the proper science to back them up. His remarks are widely being interpreted as a swipe at last week's forecast that by 2050 the world would have all but depleted its fish stocks.

Speaking at this week's plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, he reiterated his guarded support for the sciences. He said again that he sees no conflict between science and religion, and that faith need not be threatened by scientific endeavour. Rather, he argued, science is part of God's plan.

"Science cannot replace philosophy and revelation by giving an exhaustive answer to man's most radical questions: questions about the meaning of living and dying, about ultimate values, and about the nature of progress itself," he said.

He argued that researchers have a moral obligation to accuracy as well as recognising their limitations.

"This means avoiding needlessly alarming predictions when these are not supported by sufficient data or exceed science's actual ability to predict. But it also means avoiding the opposite, namely a silence, born of fear, in the face of genuine problems," he said.

Few in the scientific community would disagree with that last statement, and his sentiments echo those of Mike Hulme, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, decrying the trend of sensationalising science, particularly around climate change.

Hulme said in an interview with the BBC that "campaigners...politicians and scientists...are openly confusing the language of fear, terror and disaster with the observable physical reality of climate change, actively ignoring the careful hedging which surrounds science's predictions". ®

Related stories

• Pope watched over by flying robots during Lourdes visit (17 September 2008)
• BBC cans Planet Relief special (5 September 2007)
• World+dog awaits 'definitive' report on climate change (1 February 2007)
• Climatologists hit the skies to talk global warming (13 November 2006)
• Letters BBC's Horizon gets serious - we have pictures (9 November 2006)
• Students shy away from 'difficult' science (6 November 2006)
• Null points for BBC Horizon's junk science (4 November 2006)
• Blair: science is not just for boffins (3 November 2006)
• Southampton Uni and MIT pit wits against mysteries of the web (2 November 2006)
• TV BBC abandons science (27 October 2006)