Steven, an exercise in patience, your link … thankyou. However, it has got nothing to do with the seriousness of reducing GHG emissions. It has much to do with energy resources in general, ‘oil’ in particular.

It is very easy to be cynical, about a myriad of issues – and many people are cynical about climate change. They are as wrong.

You have demonstrated an interest in global affairs and strategic planning, certainly an appreciation of the major players … perhaps in this respect you are frustrated, but you are certainly not cynical.

You are correct (historically speaking) in that “countries do not behave altruistically.” Nevertheless, the time is coming when countries will see the benefits of doing so, for the wider interest that is. It is a slow process (more reason for cynicism?) but movement is occurring, regardless of what the recalcitrant or intransigents parlay.

Regardless of the politics, it is important to be part of the decision making process – here we had the opportunity to show real responsibility (altruism) to the global community – this will be left for another day.

How many millions of years have the planets of every solar system of every galaxy been changing in our microsecond of true time in existence been going on with our help ?
Let me guess ,oh say, nil. So now all of a sudden all the scientific evidence we were told about the great glacier ages that came and went over the history of this blue marble are now our fault ,the less important, and we should and can fix it.
Or was it that we caused it.I like it when i hear about the many that can survive on a day to day basis being the problem of the few that get it all as a right.
It is just not right when they use all of there daily energy to get them to the next day when they should be fixing all the problems that they cause. If people like them are the cause of a sea level rise then why are those million year old reefs so far up the hills even before they got there.
Maybe the fluke that made us smart ,Ha Ha, just came at an opportune moment within a thousand year break in the normal ebb and flow of our blue marble.
Very good old saying was ,In good times prepare for the bad times and in bad times prepare for the good times, but i forgot that we are far more intelligent than the people that made the ice ages.
It is very simple in that we can change and adapt to the will of our world or become some old fossils dug up by a smart and intelligent species. Oh i forgot , they will be the subsistence people that will dig us up and study us to find out what we did to cause this.
We need this marble it does not need us .

We know that we can't stop global warming. Our task is less inspiring; to contain the damage, to keep things from getting out of control. And even that is not easy. For one thing, until recently there's been no clear data suggesting the point where catastrophe looms. Now we're getting a better picture. Scientists believe future centuries will likely face the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets and a subsequent rise in sea level of giant proportion...

Are we ready to change, in dramatic and prolonged ways, in order to offer a workable future to subsequent generations? It's our coming of age moment, and there are no certainties or guarantees. Only a window of possibility, closing fast but still ajar enough to let in some hope.

I just thought I'd add that many of the paths to stabilization run straight through our daily lives, and in every case they will demand difficult changes. Air travel is one of the fastest growing sources of carbon emissions around the world, but even many of us who are noble about changing lightbulbs and happy to drive hybrid cars chafe at the thought of not jetting around the country (or the world).

We drive alone, because it's more convenient than adjusting our schedules for public transit. We build ever bigger homes even as our family sizes shrink, and we watch ever bigger TVs, and -
well, enough said. We need to figure out how to change those habits.

Previous epochal changes of climate, such as the Ice Age that ended 11,500 years ago, were set in motion by natural causes - variations in Earth's orbit that affect the amount of sunlight warming the planet. In those cases, the cycles of cooling and warming unfolded slowly, ever the course of millenia. This episode is different.

Climate is changing more rapidly than ever before. And, human activity is the main cause. Burning of fossil fuels - oil, gas, coal, has flooded the atmosphere with heat trapping carbon dioxide. Unless the carbon dioxide emissions are slashed, the planet will likely heat up even faster, fundamentally changing the world we live in.

We desperately need a government - that will be interested in environmental issues - and investing in alternative sources of energy.