Just yesterday I weighed in on the recent global warming report and today I saw something that makes me believe the "oil cartels" must be getting a bit nervous. A thinktank funded by ExxonMobil offered scientists travel expenses, $10,000, and "additional payments" to poke holes in the report. To anyone who has been paying attention it shouldn't surprise you that the thinktank has close ties to the Bush administration. In fact, according to Ben Stewart of Greenpeace:

"The AEI is more than just a thinktank, it functions as the Bush administration's intellectual Cosa Nostra. They are White House surrogates in the last throes of their campaign of climate change denial. They lost on the science; they lost on the moral case for action. All they've got left is a suitcase full of cash."

I wonder if this will really help get people, particularly in the US, to change their lifestyles a bit and help out. Or, at the very least, convince people that a Manhattan-type project is necessary to fuel new energy research. Having worked a bit in alternative energy systems I'm thoroughly convinced that we can move past the fossil-fuel age if we're prepared to do so. It just takes people actually doing it as a whole. I think the consequences of not doing so have been pretty well laid out, so no one can say they didn't know what was coming in the future if changes aren't made.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It's real. What is it? Global warming. What's the latest evidence? According to leading scientists it's almost a certainty that humans are, if not completely causing global warming(90% certainty), we're at least severely exascerbating the problem. It's likely to continue for centuries at this point, more than a million people could die, we could see a double digit global temperature rise this century, global sea levels could rise by as much as 31 inches in the worst case scenario during this century, and if nothing is done to curb emissions an eventual rise of more than 20 feet is likely.

Here in the US about 75% of people think that global warming will get worse, but don't call it a priority, further enabling the current administration to completely and totally ignore the growing problem. While most of the world sees this as an urgent problem to deal with, the administration here doesn't see any reason to act.

There's a copy of the full report in PDF format here.

In another "disturbing event" which shows "we are crossing climate thresholds" an ancient ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields(41 square miles) has broken off of Canada's arctic. It drifted 31 miles off shore before getting bogged down in the winter sea water, where it now sits.

With all of the evidence and scientists who have spent time researching the phenomena of global warming, it alarms me that we still have such a raging debate as to whether it's real or not. Lets just face the facts, as I see them:

It's real.

We're going to have to do something about it, so we might as well quit arguing and start doing something tangible.

New Scientist has an interesting article that puts a new twist on the dangers of global warming. A group of researchers from Bowling Green working in Siberia have evidence that flu viruses can survive a freezing winter locked in ice and then infect local wildlife when they thaw again. In fact, they also believe that these freezing and melting cycles serve as "melting pots" for flu viruses from year to year to mix and form new strains. It seems as though each freeze-thaw cycle kills about 90% of each virus, but that still leaves enough alive to make a comeback the next year.

Of course, this brings up the possibility that viruses that have been frozen away from mankind for much longer could be released by global warming and could make a comeback as glaciers and other frozen areas melt in the future.

Over at Mac Tonnies' blog I saw a link to an article that shows exactly where Fox News and many in the republican party stand on environmentalism and global warming. I think the way to put it would be "Let God handle it." Honestly...

James Inhofe, the outgoing Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, told Fox News in an interview(with the tag line "Is Global Warming a Hoax? below him) that we shouldn't worry about global warming because, "God's still up there." I can't even begin to put into words how I feel about that, so I'll just let you read the article here.

Finally, a little good news on the environmental front. Global atmospheric methane concentrations seem to be leveling off. If the trend continues, predicted global warming temperature rises won't be as dramatic. Maybe people really can make a difference still. Here's hoping, at least.