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Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Tells Der Spiegel we have ten years to act (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,476275,00.html)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/ICE_Calving_into_ocean.jpgDer Spiegel (http://www.spiegel.de/international/) - April 10, 2007

James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, spoke to DER SPIEGEL about the causes and consequences of global warming -- and why there are only ten years left to steer the world away from climate catastrophe.

SPIEGEL: Dr. Hansen, temperatures in Central Park reached 22 degrees Celsius (71.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in January, the Alps lacked snow throughout the season -- is winter being erased by global warming?


James Hansen: Weather and climate are two different things, which often confuses people. The average temperature is now 0.8 degrees Celsius higher than in the last century, with three-quarters of the increase happening in the last 30 years. But compared to the usual weather fluctuations, that's quite small. You can have a ten-degree variation from day to day in the weather. You can have anomalies of an average of several degrees over one month, and you still don't have to worry. However, this does not indicate we can stop thinking about this issue: We've just experienced the warmest January in 127 years of record-keeping.
… http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,476275,00.html

Well, there's no doubt that global warming is becoming a problem, but I don't think it's anywhere in the near future. They say 10 years just because we had some record temps. That's like complaining that we are freaks because we break Guiness Book records every year. Records will get broken. Now if we keep breaking them sooner and sooner then we have a big problem.

Better to get people worried before it's too late. Even those military generals are afraid of global warming.

I'd say we should get serious about fuel efficiency to become less depandant on OPEC oil and avoid peak oil as China and India consume more. We deal with climate change at the same time.

I don't know why there are so many people who fervently fight the notion of global warming/climate change, when the symptoms are all around us and are obvious.

Even without global warming, using less fuel to reduce our dependency on foreign oil is vital to our national interests, and should be one of our highest priorities. The fact that it is not is very troubling to me. Our government is asleep at the switch, and completely clueless.

Harry