In "Sizzle" Randy Olson asks three questions: (1) Has the earth warmed over the last century and a half? (2) Are human activities responsible for a large part of that warming? (3) Can we do anything to stop it? Anyone who's read the IPCC reports will answer "Yes" to all three questions. Now read this and guess where it comes from.
Once considered a problem mainly for the future, climate change is now upon us. People are at the heart of this problem: we are causing it, and we are being affected by it. The rapid onset of many aspects of climate change highlights the urgency of confronting this challenge without further delay. The choices that we make now will influence current and future emissions of heat-trapping gases, and can help to reduce future warming. Likewise, our decisions on whether and how to adapt to the degree of warming that is already inevitable can help us reduce the impacts of future warming.
If you guessed the July 2008 draft of Global Change Impacts in the United States, you probably know the answer to my next question. Who are the authors of the report, a wacky bunch of environmentalists? Only if you consider the US Climate Change Science Program a bunch of wacky environmentalists.1 As Andrew Revkin puts it, "The straightforward descriptions stand in stark contrast to those in
government reports on climate science earlier in President Bush's
tenure,"
1if you download report you'll see that it's marked "First Draft, July 2008. Do not cite or quote." So what am I doing quoting the report here? Actually, I'm not. I copied that paragraph from Andrew Revkin's article about the draft report on his blog. OK, so I am quoting the report. But I figure if a reporter for the New York Times can do it, it can't hurt if I quote him quoting the report. Can it/?
1if you download report you'll see that it's marked "First Draft, July 2008. Do not cite or quote." So what am I doing quoting the report here? Actually, I'm not. I copied that paragraph from Andrew Revkin's article about the draft report on his blog. OK, so I am quoting the report. But I figure if a reporter for the New York Times can do it, it can't hurt if I quote him quoting the report. Can it/?
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