Even the skeptics seem willing to admit that the warming we observe around us is unprecedented in historical terms. Suppose we leave aside, for a moment, our various disputes about whether or not the warming is anthropogenic and where it fits in a geological context. I think even woodNfish and greg have admitted, here, that we ARE seeing warming effects that we have not seen during recorded history.

Doesn't this inevitably lead to a series of questions about what the effects might be and how we might amelioriate or mitigate them? Even a moderate rise in mean sea level will be devastating for most of Florida and many or most of our coastal cities. The human catastrophe as rising sea levels and decreasing water supplies displace more than a hundred million people in the Asia-Pacific region alone will surely have global consequences.

Can anyone with a room-temperature IQ seriously argue that there is no risk of scenarios like this unfolding? Shouldn't we therefore be doing some planning? Aren't there SOME learnings we might draw from our disastrously incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina?

Just wondering.

I quickly read over the report too. I see a lot of finger pointing and some possible "feedback' solutions but like almost all reports one reads on global warming there is little thinking of the 3 dimensional causes. It always seems it "those" people burning fuels or something like that. What if - we were to begin thinking along the lines of - doesn't the earth tend to get warmer anyway and gee, maybe we shouldn't allow the rain forests to dissapear and maybe this is just simply part of a much larger climatic cycle which we don't fully understand??
While the things we do probably don't help much i think we are also taking ourselves way to seriously to believe that we can effect the climate of an entire globe, 75% of it covered with "dark" water.
When the "scientists" who are alarming the fools stop playing god and start being responsible for their teachings - I will then begin to listen with a more open mind. I believe they have good intentions but i don't believe they are understanding the entire scope of the issue.
Tom

Our mother-ship, planet earth has been very kind to the human population every though we have managed to abuse her at every turn. The warnings of Global Warming that appeared in the early 90's have been widely ignored, and now it might be too late, if possible to turn the tide. After reading the end of year report, I'm thinking that whatever can be done needs to begin today.

Good evening Laura,

I am not sure why I am posting this comment. Perhaps it is because I feel I have waited long enough to respond to subject of global warming. So, here goes. People seem to have the ability to easily point to the cause of global warming. I would like to posit this thought for your consideration. Global warming is the result of population growth. Here is the basis for my thought.

Burning of fossil fuels... more people, more burning.

Cutting down forests... more people, more houses, more development

Power plants... more people, more power needed.

Air pollution... more people... more pollution.

Making better cars doesn't stop global warming, it just slows it down. As the population of people grows so does the need for cars. And with this,emissions from cars will again be an issue.

I am not offering a solution to the problem of global warming. My only thought is that we look at the reason behind all the other reasons.

Respectfully,

James

Laura,
I wouldn't trouble yourself too much with these articles from the Independent. The entire AGW debate is increasingly becoming one large echo chamber. Hansen and others have been talking about climate "points of no return" for a while. Not very scientific, but it does receive decent press.

The last really extended period of global warming lasted almost 500 years, and had important ramifications to the civilisations in both Asia and Europe. During that time, the glaciers in the Alps, Greenland, and North America retreated only to return and grow during the coldest 150 years of the Little Ice Age. The last 150 years of Global Warming negated the glaciation of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Personally, I think we should be looking to the Sun and not to our autos exhaust pipes for the answers. A fraction of change in the Sun's illumonosity can have dramtic effects on our climate.

Happy New Years

As long as there are just as many real scientists that believe there is nothing but hype to this "global warming", I will not worry about it. I think it is being pushed by a certain group who believes that the USA is too rich, too prosperous and too bold with its neighbors in the world. Well, too bad. We are the greatest country in the world and we will NOT abandon that status for a bunch of cry babies!

In terms of tipping points, would be very interested to see what you think of the "out of the ordinary" events for 2006--NOAA's NCDC has an interesting graphic. In particular, what do you make of the number of severe tropical cyclones in the Pacific, many of which were the equivalent of Cat 4's and 5's.

Feedback mechanisms are truly frightening. They are the reason why waiting to change our behaviors that impact carbon emissions is not an option - because we could fall right off the cliff just as it comes into view.

Excellent article though.

I just finished reading “Review of the year: Global warming Our worst fears are exceeded by reality, by Steve Connor ,Published: 29 December 2006” with great interest.
Looking at claims with a jaundiced eye is my business. I have spent a professional lifetime reading scientific journals and looking for the flaws in the research or the conclusions.
Researchers readily admit to three abrupt other climate changes happening before and without our interference…..or understanding. This seems to be three excellent reasons to doubt our being the main cause of this warming.

An observation on this article:
“Some climate scientists believe that the risk of dangerous feedbacks tipping the Earth's climate system beyond a threshold is so great that there should be wider recognition of what they term "abrupt changes". The point is, they say, it has happened repeatedly in the past.
1. It happened 55 million years ago when a trillion tons of methane were suddenly and mysteriously released from frozen stores on the seabed, causing global temperatures to soar 10C, and a mass extinction of species. (Caused by offshore drilling??? NO we were not drilling then)
2. It happened 14,500 years ago when ice sheets catastrophically collapsed into the ocean causing sea levels to rise by 20 metres in just 400 years. (Obviously caused by too many coal fired electric generating plants???? NO, we didn’t mine coal then)
3. It happened 6,500 years ago when the Sahara was suddenly turned from lush vegetation to dry desert.(undoubtedly caused by feedback of too many SUV’s on the way to the beach??? NO we had no hydrocarbon based economy then)
4. Scientists say that what is happening now…………. (Obviously since we are on the planet it is our fault! Guilt by observation???? YES)

Warming has happened 3 times in the past without Human intervention or any obvious idea why but this time WE are responsible?????

Instead of pointing fingers maybe we should spend some time on getting ready for these changes so we can adapt and survive. But then the pointing fingers, wringing of hands and talking about something that industrialized nations will never do, is easier than making real plans for this change.

Thank you,
Dr. Ted Stucka
Maryland NY 12116

Dr. Stucka seems to be making the same point I made at the beginning of the thread. He cites prior events -- one fifty five million years ago, one fourteen thousand five hundred years ago, and one six thousand five hundred years ago.

The earliest evidence of written language that we've found is about six thousand years old -- the Sumerian tablets found in the excavations of Uruk (in Mesopotamia). I, for one, take little comfort in knowing that these epochal events have happened three times already without human intervention, especially given the traumatic changes that followed.

I welcome Dr. Stucka's suggestion that we substitute "making real plans". I wonder if he can be more specific about what he has in mind.

Unfortunately, the Independent is not a useful informant on mechanisms of global warming, judging by the following appalling article written by their "Environment Editor". Either this bloke is hopelessly stupid or the Independent assumes that their readers are. Sea levels have risen only a few millimeters in recent years, no where near enough to explain the effects this drama king describes in his "Rising Seas" story below. Even the National Enquirer is more scientifically literate:

"Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island
For the first time, an inhabited island has disappeared beneath rising seas. Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean reports
Published: 24 December 2006

Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.

As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.

Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea."

I have read that it has only been this warm for 5% of the last 100,000 years. In that context, we should be thanking our lucky stars. If we were to enter a 'little ice age' again, the results could be a real disaster for the world's population and food production. The warming of the last 50 years has had many beneficial effects, whatever the cause.

There are things that can be done to mitigate loss of greenspace, for instance just painting all roofs in the tropics white would help. Returning areas to rain forest is do-able for relitively cheap too.

However, the intent of most in the global warming camp seems to be exert control to more aspects of our lives, and to exact a cost on industrialized societies. Their agenda is driven by the desire to control the behavior of others. Can we all do more to reduce our footprint? Yes. But are you ready to give up your personal freedoms in the HOPE that it will make one iota of difference? Because even at best, any results of any actions we take now will never be discernible nor validated in our lifetimes.

Dear sirs and madams,

we all may harbour different viewpoints and credibility towards what's happening in the world today. But one thing remains the same: we're all living on the same planet, n this is the only home we have. Pointing fingers, deciding who's great n who's not, n thinking how irrelevant our existence is towards climate change is not going to change the fact that our home is being threatened. Pretty soon, we may start a civil war on mother earth.

We may not be scientists, environmentalists or government bodies, but we are the earth's tenants, each n everyone of us. So minute or insignificant our efforts of living more responsibly each day may seem, but it's the spirit that's important. The spirit of repaying the land we stand on, the spirit of passing down the same spirit onto the next generation, so that appreciation for what we have is strengthened, not eroded.

I will do what i can, so long as i'm living on this planet. I'm sure all of us will too. But lets do it sooner rather than later.

Sincerely,
ming