The year regarding climate change

Here's an article I really want to share with you. It's from the UK newspaper the Independent and the article is entitled, "Review of the Year: Climate Change". Here's an excerpt:

The past 12 months have been one of the hottest periods ever recorded. When all the figures are in, this may prove to have been the warmest year in the global temperature record, although in mid-December British meteorological scientists were saying it was still just exceeded by 1998.

But, around the world, there have been unprecedented heat-waves. The thermometer reached an astonishing 50C - that's 122F - in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Algeria. Canada and Australia had their hottest-ever weather, while a record drought in Western Europe saw bush fires devastate much of Portugal's countryside.

Two other phenomena besides high temperatures pointed directly at climate change in 2005. One was the record melting of ice in the Arctic Ocean, and of land-based glaciers and ice sheets; the other was the record incidence of tropical storms.

In September, satellite measurements showed that the Arctic sea ice had melted to a record low extent - about 20 per cent below the long-term average - prompting fears that an irreversible decline has set in, and that the whole of the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free relatively soon, perhaps within two to three decades.

This is horrifying. How can people say with a straight face that it's not happening? I was listening to Science Friday on NPR this afternoon and one guest was talking about the anti-science climate in this country today and how scary that is. I suppose if you just don't believe in science, the empirical evidence will not persuade you.