"A growing body of scientific opinion suggests the world may be about to experience not a gradual rise in temperatures over several decades but a wild careening into climate chaos.A growing body of scientific opinion suggests the world may be about to experience not a gradual rise in temperatures over several decades but a wild careening into climate chaos."

This balanced article (quote above is a LInk) notes a major concern: Though scientific opinion is divided on whether we face a gradual warming or a possibly rapid change, the political planners are only considering the gradual possibility.

Should those who see a ‘wild careening’ into massive changes be right, we will be totally unprepared to cope with those changes.

In this UK article, writer George Monbiot asserts that a major disinformation campaign on global warming is being funded by Exxon, and oddly enough, Phillip Morris, the tobacco giant. No, they’re not worried that smoking is perceived as a cause of climate change- instead they apparently created a policy group and had them start attacking scientific consensus on warming as a cover for campaigns supporting smoking from the same group. The idea is to legitimize their group by showing they do all kinds of policy issues, not just smoking-related coverage.

If true, this is ultra creepy and signals  a corporate culture that has completely abandoned any semblance of ethics both as business(es) and as individuals within those companies. Bad karma.

Watch out for Shiva, Goddess of Destruction…

It was announced today that ice core samples of air encased in bubbles give us our oldest data points for measuring increases in carbon dioxide. These samples are 800,000 years old and show a range of 180-300 parts per million by volume for the entire period until you reach a point 200 years ago when they start rising to today’s concentration of 380 ppmv.

The importance of this finding is political: those who claim we’re not responsible for these changes always use the ‘we don’t have a long enough period of data to eliminate natural causes’ argument. 800,000 years is statistically long enough especially when you see that the spike is entirely measurable in recent time. If you look back 200 years you’re seeing almost the exact point where we start our reliance on fossil fuels in the form of coal for heat and train transport.

California is poised to enact the most far reaching carbon reduction plan in the country with a target of reducing carbon emission by 25% by 2020 which would be equivalent to rolling back to 1990 levels. This is essentially their ratification of the Kyoto guidelines ignored by the Federal government. It is a bipartisan effort (on the moderate side) which will be signed into law by the Governator.

Hopefully my state of NY will be next. We have agreed with several other Great Lakes states to restrict emissions from coal-fired plants. If the Bush people won’t pull their heads out of the sand on this issue then it will be up to local and state governments to take the lead. CA, as usual, is in the forefront.