Scientists: We must slash our carbon outputs

The scientists tell us that to avert more warming, we're going to have to cut carbon emissions faster and more dramatically than Kyoto or any other plans have been calling for. It's serious folks. And as quaint as the warming-deniers are, the weight of the evidence and the seriousness of the problems warming will cause justify serious national action.

As I watch coverage of the Presidential primaries unfold, I continue to be amazed by the ability of candidates, commentators and news professionals alike to ignore virtually all serious discussion of the life-or-death issues in front of us. Instead, they focus in with laser-like intensity on the most sophomoric, personality-driven aspects of the election. To my knowledge, nobody has asked either candidate, "What do you plan to do when oil reaches $150 a barrel?" or, "What if Greenland melts?"

Lately, I've gotten a little worried that maybe this isn't just a recession or a cyclical downturn in the American economy. When you look at what's happening to the U.S. dollar, and what's happening to our manufacturing base, and you add to it the aging of our population, and the huge demands that Medicare and Soc. Security are going to put on all of us... well, I start to get a bit gloomy. When you add in the prospect that fuel could get three times as expensive as it is now, that we will see huge resource wars and the displacement of hundreds of millions of people due to warming, the loss of huge amounts of natural habitat for the same reason, and potential shocks to the planet's ability to produce food... well, I get downright worried.

So, whatever else happens, it's pretty clear to me we have to cut carbon outputs now.