As usual, Toles explains the big picture with ease, leaving the rest of us to squabble over the details:
To be specific, the last couple of months have brought several grim climate studies to the fore, none of which has raised so much as a ripple of consciousness, as far as yours truly can tell.
For example: the recent drought in the Southeast was small potatoes in climactic history, according to a study by Richard Seager of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. another example: even if nations do act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the planet will warm by over six degrees Fahrenheit this century, which is nearly double the amount scientists believed we can tolerate without suffering catastrophic damage.
Or, to put it a little more memorably perhaps, the existence of the famous cedar of Lebanon is imperiled, because desertification is coming to about 60% of the country, according to local experts.
This conflict between the overwhelming weight of scientific data, and the apparent indifference of the public, brings to mind a question that top paleoclimatologist Richard Alley sometimes asks — when do scientists "bang the table" and demand that legislators and the public pay attention?
Kit Stolz 