What Are We Doing?

Some folks in the world continue to insist that the Earth's climate is not changing for the worse. It is possible they are correct, I suppose. However, I don't understand how all the signs of global climate change can be rationalized, denied, justified, or ignored. A few things to consider:

• The Inuit people have witnessed disappearing permafrost and retreating Arctic ice.
• Latin Americans and Southern Asians have seen increased lethal storms and floods.
• Oceanic temperatures are rising.
• Europeans endure forest fires, disappearing glaciers and fatal heat waves.
• The world has not been this warm for more than 1,000 years, as seen in polar ice cores.
• The three warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998; 19 of the warmest 20 since 1980.
• The Earth has probably never warmed as fast as in the past 30 years - a period when natural influences on global temperatures, such as solar cycles and volcanoes should have cooled us down.
• Some crops grow faster while others see yields slashed by disease and drought.
• Strong hurricanes are becoming more frequent and destructive.
• Arctic sea ice is melting faster every year.
• Thermal expansion of the oceans, combined with melting ice on land, is raising sea levels.
• In this century, human activity could trigger an irreversible melting of the Greenland ice sheet and Antarctic glaciers. This would condemn the world to a rise in sea level of six meters, enough to flood land occupied by billions of people.
• Late last year, oceanographers reported a sudden and shocking slowdown in the currents of the North Atlantic, a critical part of the vast system of ocean circulation that influences temperatures and weather around the world. A shutdown could cause famine in south Asia, kill off the Amazon rainforest and plunge western Europe into a mini ice age. (Remember the movie The Day After Tomorrow?)
• Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have increased year after year and are now 35% above pre-industrial levels.
• As natural ecosystems are disrupted and/or destroyed, biodiversity is reduced. Most species cannot migrate fast enough to keep up while others are evolving in response to warming.
• Melting glaciers and icecaps spur earthquakes and volcanic eruptions around the globe.
• Polar bears are now resorting to cannibalism, a behavior never before observed in the species. Because of the retreating ice, they are unable to reach their primary foodsource and have begun to feed on each other.

I hate to be an alarmist, propagandist, or doomsday-er, but our world is going to shit. The major skeptics of global warming include several "think tanks" that are primarily funded by ExxonMobile, the world's largest oil company and an outspoken critic of climate science. Surprise, surprise, surprise.