I have absolutely no doubt there are changes happening globally. The warming is really happening and it seems storms are becoming more intense. When I was a boy in northern Iowa there was snow on the ground from the end of November until the middle of March. -20F was an annual occurrence, happening several times at the end of January and beginning of February. There was enough snow to dig tunnels, make snow forts, and keep us home from school on "snow days". 30 years later, it rains in January.

Although I doubt human activity and the pollution we have spewed into the atmosphere are the primary causes of global warming, I have serious doubts that what we do now will make much of a difference. If we assume that pollution and greenhouse gases are the cause, then it would still take years to reduce those emissions in a time when India and China are coming out of the dark ages so that now there are 2 billion more people that want to drive cars and have electric appliances, increasing total global emissions. AND, if all polluting stopped right now -- shut off our lights, put our cars, buses, trucks, trains, and airplanes on blocks and all lived a subsistence lifestyle -- how long would it take for the damage that has been done to start reversing itself?

I have little faith that the human population will be able to reduce total global emissions. I believe we need to start planning on how to deal with a warmer, more volatile earth. That is not all bad, because on a warmer earth those millions of acres of farmland in Manitoba and the Dakotas will become more productive at the same time that farmland in Oklahoma decreases in productivity. Northern cities will become more livable. Phoenix -- well, it is fucking hot here already so we wont even notice. As long as we can adapt to the changes, global warming in itself will not be the cause of Armageddon.