Much before the day when restrictions due to environmental reasons will become a problem to solve, oil already peaked in late 80's will completely exhaust, making the entire air travel industry (along with all other fossil fuel based transport) obsolete. Before that, alternate and renewable fuels as well as modes of transport independent of fossil fuels shall have to be developed and employed.

Climate change is part of life. We will just have to adapt. Those that don't - die. It's evolution.

With crude oil touching new highs, it is no wonder that the internet is abuzz with this news. Your post about climate change is a timely reminder that we need to do something to protect the environment, and fast. What each of us personally can do is to make whatever little effort we can in this direction, perhaps like switch to an environmentally friendlier means of transport, like an electric vehicle, like the ones at http://zapworld.com. Take a look

d.beck ----

love your cited references, excuse me, reference..."ski industry at risk"...no surprise this is a reflection of  the last remaining Newsweek readers.

Why do you assume the "skeptics" have money? Seems the people making money from this scam are selling carbon offsets, aren't they?

I did not realize that we were so unadaptable as a species, as a society, and as as civilization.  The history of this planet is change; its climate, geology, and biology.  Nothing is static that is within the operator of time.  Let's deal with this rationally without the Chicken Little syndrome.

Great work Sharon. Here is a piece I have been working on along the same line:

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Perfectly Clear, Shinning Example of Climate Change Danger Here and Now

In the past several years there have been studies showing plants flowering as much as a month early, butterflies migrating weeks later than usual, changes in the timing and location of bird migrations, tropical frog extinctions, bears in Spain no longer hibernating because there is enough food to eat all winter, tree lines moving up mountainsides and up in latitude, the line of permafrost moving north, and others. But none of these are close enough or important enough to us to make us (Americans) concerned. It is out on the fringe of our world and simply does not affect us.

Here is an example of how we actually are being affected and will continue to be affected. In 1949 the southeast had a rare weather event. A rare tornado developed in early February, much earlier than normal.

Well, this year Wisconsin had a rare weather event. An F-3 tornado developed January 5th for the first time, that early in the year, in the record books that go back over 120 years.

Add to that the devastating outbreak of tornadoes in the first week of February this year in the Southeast where a super-cell developed an F-4 which rolled along the ground for 123 miles wreaking havoc to many towns along the way.

This is a pure, shinning example of climate change straight out of the text books. The rare, early, out of season formation of a tornado has moved to the North by roughly 500 miles......... and the rare, early, out of season weather event in the Southeast is now an extremely strong system that produces 4 tornadoes and extreme devastation over a 123 mile long path killing 54.

That's Not All

If that is not alarming enough, a just released study shows that Lake Mead will be dry in twelve years. What will LA, Las Vegas and Phoenix do for drinking water. Also the drought in the Southeast has brought several towns to water rationing.

As for the Colorado River system, the winters in the Rocky Mountains (where its water originates) are getting shorter, warmer, and with less precipitation. But I know, you don't think Global Warming has anything to do with LA's water supply. Well, scientists will differ with you. "According to researchers at the Aspen Global Change Institute, "it" is already happening. Its studies show that Aspen has an average overall warming of 3 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 30 years and if the trend continues, it will have a ski country climate similar to that of say Amarillo, Texas, by the end of the century."(1 )

These things are hitting us right now......the effects of climate disruption are in our face, and are proving to be sooner than expected. This is how climate change is manifesting itself with just one degree F of warming. Won't 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 degrees be wonderful for our grandchildren?

It's no longer the polar bears or the coral reefs or a village of Eskimos in the Arctic that can easily be ignored.

Don't think of Global Warming as the thing to fear - higher temperatures all year round and constantly warm winters - that is not what it means weather-wise. That is an un-informed and quite naive thought. It's what the warming is CAUSING that you should be afraid of - climate change, climate SHIFT, or climate DISRUPTION which is the result of warming the oceans by nearly one degree F. Doesn't sound like much, does it? It is actually astronomical.

The oceans are simply unfathomably immense! The volume is actually incomprehensible, being 70% of the earth's surface (310 million cubic miles). If you could stack water 100 cubic miles long and 100 cubic miles wide, that column would reach 31,000 miles into outer space. That is an astronomical amount of water, no pun intended!

Just try to imagine the amount of heat it would take to raise the ocean's temperature just 1 degree. And essentially, that heat or energy remains in the water, and is the power that fuels the weather events for a very long time.

11 of the 12 warmest years in many centuries are in the past 12 years. That is not 'climate variability'. Climate variability would be ONE of the past 12 years being among the 12 warmest years. This is a distinction that is little understood by the general public.

A 100 year-long (at the very least) 'program' has been installed into the world's climate system (the oceans) that does not have a 'delete' button. If it were possible to stop emitting CO2 into the atmosphere today entirely, what has already been emitted will continue to raise the temperature of the planet for over 100 years. That cannot be stopped! That is "in the works", as they say. This is another very grim fact that the public is generally not aware of.

The climate is a very sinister, very slow moving, and very dangerous entity. It is little understood by the lay people of the world, which makes it an even more dangerous thing. Slight movements of the climate have brought about enormous events such as drought and famine and pestilence. Now, mankind is able to cause these horrible situations with emissions of CO2 and whatever other natural factors are at work.

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References:

1) Global warming placing ski industry at risk

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_7627696  - this link is not functioning, search the title in the Post's search engine

This is much more interesting and frightening than the Heidi Fleiss interview. Although I admit I'd rather read light entertainment than this imminent chapter of the future to come. Sharon, if you read this, thank you, for writing this and alerting us to the inevitable climate changes. I thank your parents for encouraging you to think, to question, to write, and to speak out. Bless you.